The great river cuts through the Taihang range and flows east, with several dozen sheer rapids so violent that fish and turtles cannot stay. One of them is called the Seventh Girl Rapid. On the top of the mountain is a temple to the Dragon Girl, and below it a thousand households.
Every summer when the floods reached the sky the village had the labour of dykes and the fear of being swallowed. The elders discussed among themselves moving the settlement elsewhere. A scholar named Han Yuanweng, mature and learned, and trusted by the neighbourhood, was consulted.
Han Yuanweng said: “We have lived here for generations. Our graves and houses have been handed down a long time. To abandon them at one go would leave our hearts uneasy in the end. Let us try laying our sincerity before the dragon shrine and see whether it agrees, and then make our plans accordingly. It is not too late.”
So they subscribed money, prepared animals, wine and spirits, chose a day, went to the temple, and asked to move the shrine to the river bank. They cast the divining blocks and got a lucky answer, and the crowd bowed and went home, and were calculating the cost.
That night there was a great storm of thunder and wind, with a sound like a collapsing mountain, and rain pouring in rivers, foxes howling and ghosts wailing. Everyone at the foot of the mountain got up, all thinking they had angered the god.
By dawn the sky was clear and mild, and the whole temple stood on the level ground, with not one rafter or tile damaged, and the mud-plastered statues all in place, facing the right way, its foundations firmer than before and far surpassing the old.
After that, whenever the flood rose it stopped at the temple bank, and the people had no more anxiety.
