Chinese character 觋

A male shaman or ritual specialist. He serves spirits, sets up ritual space, and prepares offerings.

The traditional form 覡 combines 巫 and 見. Qin-era Chinese bamboo slips, thin strips of bamboo used for writing, use 見, read as 覡, for the male counterpart to 巫. The earliest surviving written appearance of 覡 is linked to the Guoyu, an ancient Chinese text from the fourth century BCE.

觋 and 巫 are related but not interchangeable: older writing distinguishes the male 觋 from the female 巫, though 巫 can also be generic. During China's Yuan dynasty, sources connect 巫觋 with healing, divination, spirit contact, harmful magic, and skepticism about these practices.