Yet this comprehensive embodiment of divine authority was also the shaman. However, ever since the First Emperor, there had been a frantic suppression of shamanic authority. It was royal authority completely crushing shamanic authority. To put it bluntly, fangshi also traced their roots back to shamans, and martial artists, when tracing their origins, could not be separated from shamans either. Shamans also exerted a massive influence on the religions of later generations.
However, a shaman was not merely someone who danced to the gods or communicated with ghosts and spirits; they encompassed every discipline! Astronomy, calendrical calculation, medicine, law, agricultural techniques, philosophy, history, literature, art, and so on—none of these could be separated from the shamans! The shamans were the group of intellectuals of that era, and the Son of Heaven was the supreme leader of this group.
Shamanic doctors, shamanic priests, and shamanic diviners were all shamans, and the progenitor of all shamanic practitioners was Fuxi, one of the Three Sovereigns."
Chapter 336