I think OneSixTheAntiVirus nailed it. There's some interesting ideas in Chinese mythology about every spirit have a rank and a function in a formally organized Celestial Bureaucracy. It was said that the bureaucratic systems of the Chinese Empires were modeled after those in Heaven and that it was Heaven who gave its authority for the Emperor to rule.
So this means that every god had another god it answered to, and others it had to look after and provide for. If a spirit did something it wasn't supposed to do, it was its superiors' duty to deal with it.
There's a fascinating tidbit from Japan regarding a kitsune (fox spirit) where Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a high government official, wrote a letter to Inari (the Japanese kami of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry, and worldly success).
To Inari Daimyojin,
My lord, I have the honor to inform you that one of the foxes under your jurisdiction has bewitched one of my servants, causing her and others a great deal of trouble. I have to request that you make minute inquiries into the matter, and endeavor to find out the reason of your subject misbehaving in this way, and let me know the result.
If it turns out that the fox has no adequate reason to give for his behavior, you are to arrest and punish him at once. If you hesitate to take action in this matter I shall issue orders for the destruction of every fox in the land. Any other particulars that you may wish to be informed of in reference to what has occurred, you can learn from the high priest of Yoshida.
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
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