In the dingsi year of Qianlong, the academician Zhou Huang was commissioned to install the king of the Ryukyu. As the ship went out to sea a hurricane rose and it was blown into the Black Eddy, where the water was pure black and sun and moon were dark. It is said that none who enter the Black Ocean ever return alive; the sailors and the commissioner were weeping together in grief, when suddenly they saw ten thousand red lanterns on the surface of the water. The sailors were wild with joy and prostrated themselves in the cabin crying: “We live! The Lady is come!”
And there indeed was one with a high coiffure and golden earrings, very beautiful, directing things in the air. Straightway the wind stopped, and it was as if someone were hauling the boat along, with a rumbling sound. In a moment they were out of the Black Ocean.
After Zhou returned he memorialised to build a temple to the Goddess of the Favourable Winds. The Son of Heaven, approving her responsive miracle, granted the request. The matter is recorded in the gazette of the twenty-second year of Qianlong.
