His primary duties were orchestrating the seasonal Nuo ritual to chase out disease-causing demons from houses and buildings, and leading a funeral procession to exorcize corpse-eating wangliang spirits away from a burial chamber.

In the present day, the fangxiangshi is a masked character in Chinese Nuo opera, and continues as the Japanese equivalent hōsōshi 方相氏 exorcist in Shinto ceremonies.

Zheng explains fāngxiàng(shì) as fàngxiǎng 放想, substituting fàng 放 "put away; banish" for fāng 方 and xiǎng 想 "think; imagine" for xiàng 相.

Ying Shao's (c. 195 CE) Fengsu Tongyi quotes this Zhouli passage with wangxiang for fangliang in explaining the origins of Chinese customs of placing thuja (arborvitae) trees and stone tigers in graveyards.

[5]The common interpretation of the fang in fangxiang is that it denotes the sìfāng 四方 "the four quarters/directions; every side/direction", as ritually symbolized by the four golden eyes on the bearskin signifying the ability of a fangxiangshi to see in all directions.

According to Dallas McCurley, the early Chinese believed that "the forces of rain, wind, flood, and drought often came to the climatically vulnerable Yellow River Valley from the sifang.

The earliest detailed description of fangxiangshi is found in the (c. 3rd century BCE) Zhouli "Rites of Zhou" Xiaguan 夏官 "Offices of Summer" section.

The first context details the types and numbers of assistants for each official rank, including over 40 to support the fangxiangshi: 4 kuángfū 狂夫 "crazy men; mediums", 8 diviners with 6 subordinates, 2 accountants, 2 scribes, 2 menials, and 20 runners.

[14] The second Zhouli context includes the fangxiangshi under the section describing official duties of the nánwū 男巫 "male shaman/medium": At the annual Great Exorcism (nuo 儺), when the Nanwu play a central role: after either presenting offerings or shooting arrows (which of the two remains unclear) at the evil spirits in the four directions, they (according to Zheng Xuan) accompany them outside, away from human habitations"[15] The received Zhouli text has zèng 贈 "to present" but Zheng Xuan mentions an old variant of zèng 矰 "to shoot arrows".

Zhouli scholars concur in interpreting the four golden eyes on the bearskin to symbolize the ability of a fangxiangshi to see simultaneously in all sìfāng 四方 "four directions", as well as striking all sìyú 四隅 "four corners" of the tomb with a lance to scare away the corpse-eating wangliang.

[20] The Han polymath Zhang Heng's (2nd century CE) "Dongjing fu" poem about the capital Luoyang contemporaneously describes fangxiang(shi) at the Nuo ritual.

Flaming torches run after these beings, so that a sparkling and streaming glare chases the red plague to all sides; thereupon they destroy them in the imperial moats and break down the suspension bridges (to prevent their return).

The land of Tu-shoh, affords protection by peach branches, the effects of which are enhanced by Yuh-lei and Shen-tu, who on the other side, with ropes of rush in their hands, by means of their sharp eyesight spy out the darkest corners, in order to catch the spectres which still remain after the chase.

The ritual of it is the following — From among the apprentices of the inner Yellow Gate of the Palace, one hundred and twenty of ten, eleven or twelve years are selected to act as 'lads'; they are dressed with red bonnets and black coats, and they carry large hand-drums.

The fang-siang shi with four eyes of gold and masked with bearskins, wearing black coats and red skirts, grasp their lances and wield their shields.

Han-era fangxiangshi and Nuo ritual traditions continued to be followed during the turbulent Southern and Northern dynasties period (420-589), which was an age of civil war and large-scale migration.

The Tang-Song handbook on burial practices, the Bicanq jing,[30] says the fangxiang figures were "woven in five colors, had four eyes and held tree branches in their hands".

De Groot describes popular exorcising processions as "noisy, and even amusing, agreeably breaking the monotony of daily life" on the last day of the year, with boys wearing ghost-masks of old and young people and numerous gods and spirits, men dressed in costumes of fearsome door gods to scare away evil spirits, and male and female wu-shamans dancing with drums, all under the guidance of men and women acting as "fathers and mothers of the Nuo" ritual.

[33] In the 1980s, the Chinese government officially recognized Nuo rituals as the folk religion of the Tujia people, who primarily live in the Wuling Mountains of Central China.

During the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese adopted many Tang dynasty (618-907) Chinese customs, including the fangxiangshi known as hōsōshi 方相氏 who would lead a funeral procession and exorcise demons from a burial mound.

The Kyōgen actor Nomura Mannojō noted that Chinese Nuo rituals 儺 were the 8th-century source for the Japanese tsuina 追儺 or setsubun "ritual to exorcise evil spirits on the last day of winter", and proposed that supernatural power links the Chinese nuo performer fangxiangshi and the Japanese gigaku masked character Chidō 治道 "govern the way" who leads a.