Towering to Cloudy Sky

Part of the Taoist pantheon, Master Zhang Tianshi had the magical power of manipulating wind, rain, thunder, and lightening to kill ghosts and ward off demons. He became a popular figure in the vernacular literature and popular theater and his portraits were widely worshiped during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Luo Pin's personal interpretation has Master Zhang dressed as a Taoist immortat: he wears a small cap affixed with a long hairpin, and a huge robe, almost square in shape with a central opening of a type normally worn by a priest officiating at a ritual. The tablet in his hands is of a type used during ritual audiences with Taoist deities. Luo's playful poem describes the image:
If one method of magic does not give results, I use another. In this old man's sleeves there are millions of magic tricks. [They] certainly bring gold: When families request that I paint a Buddha [or a bodhisattva] [to keep ghosts away], there is no need to say whether or not there are ghosts, no difference, whether in hurricane or thunderstorm, daytime or night- I shall do everything in my power to get rid of them. Then all the young ghosts will be tied up with knots.