A daughter of Director Zhang of Huzhou was beautiful. Born in the guiyi year of the Qiandao era, she was eighteen by the gengxu year of the Shaoxi era. She served her parents with filial devotion and seldom strayed from the inner rooms.
That spring she suddenly fell into a bewitching illness, often whispering intimately with someone. Doctors and shamans could not cure her. At the time there was a wandering Daoist skilled at subduing ghosts and demons, of lofty conduct, whom people called Master Exorcist; the locals praised him to Zhang, who invited him home.
As the master raised his sword and sprayed purified water, the girl came out and mocked and bested him, utterly unshaken. Deeply ashamed and troubled, the master went outside and dozed by a bridge; his soul rose and wound upward as if leaving his body, and he met the Heavenly Inspector of the Nine Heavens on his tour, with a solemn escort.
He went to the carriage and bowed twice, reporting that Zhang’s daughter was tormented by a demon and could not be driven out, and begging for guidance. The Inspector said: “You may cure it with the Gold Bridge Formula.” He woke at once, returned to Zhang’s gate, and performed the rite. The girl bowed her head and submitted.
Asked his name, the spirit said: “I am the god of the neighboring shrine. When Zhang was poor he came and prayed to me, vowing to give me this daughter as wife; for that reason I gave him special protection. Now that he has become wealthy he has suddenly broken the pact, and so I cause this mischief — though her parents had long since inwardly agreed to it, and I dare not afflict them on my own. May the master take note.”
The master said: “Would you allow craftsmen to carve a statue of the girl at your left, and in leisure let her release her spirit and return to her proper work?” The god thanked him and said: “Respectfully, yes.” After that she was calm, and she has since been given to a husband.
