The richly documented life of Shi Daoyuan( 1617 1678) provides a unique case study of the relationship between elite Daoist institutions and local cults，particularly spirit-medium cults． The article discusses current research on this topic before introducing Shi and the sources for his dealings with local
cults，notably the Wutong． Shi was often called by members of the local elites in Suzhou to perform exorcisms． In this process，Shi not only employed martial gods from the classical Daoist thunder rites traditions，but also incorporated local gods into his pantheon． As a result，ambivalent gods such as the Wutong were to some extent tamed and made more acceptable． Such a process developed over the long term; present fieldwork shows that the Wutong are still partly marginal but have been nonetheless quite thoroughly integrated within mainstream Daoism．