Reflections on the Political Role of Spirit Mediums in Early China: TheWuOfficials in theZhou Li

Through close analysis of the traditional hermeneutics of the Zhou li sections on the Si 丽(Manager of the Spirit Mediums), Nanwu (Male Spirit Mediums), and Nüzou (Female Spirit Mediums), this article attempts to reconstruct the classical image of spirit mediums during the Zhou dynasty. It shows that spirit mediums, though grouped under the “bureaucratic” hierarchy of the Zhou li , have traditionally been assumed to be distinct in function and activities from the officials with whom they interacted duringceremonies. As specialized religious virtuousi capable of communicating with the supernatural forces, they apparently continued to play a distinguished role in political ritual — possibly derived from Shang court shamanism, and undoubtedly ancestral to the function of mediums in late traditional popular religion.