The wood sculpture, smaller than life-size, was brought from Anxi by a faithful named Wong (翁), who set up an altar at his home for the sect founder some time before the Sino-French War of 1884-85. Admiral Sebastian Nicholas Joachin Lespes landed 400 French marines at Tamsui on October 8, 1884. They tried to occupy the port at the mouth of the Tamsui River and a fierce battle at close range with a defense force ensued for six hours. The Chinese force under command of General Sun Kai-hua (孫開華) routed the French, who had to straggle back to their warships.

General Sun, who might probably have visited Wong¡¦s home to pray for divine help from the sect founder, memorialized to the Qing court in Beijing, requesting imperial appreciation for whatever assistance the guardian god of Tamsui had rendered. The Guanxu emperor awarded a plaque, which the faithful believed was too dignified to be displayed at a private home. (The four characters inscribed in the plaque— V Gong Zi Zheng Ci (功資拯濟) or Meritorious succor in helpful deliverance— describes the emperor¡¦s appreciation.) As a result, the faithful decided to let the plaque be hung and displayed at a newly built temple dedicated to the sect founder at Banka or Wanhua in Taipei. Later, the faithful in Wanhua persuaded Wong to lend them his statue of the sect founder. At first they were agreed that the Tamsui statue would be displayed alternately in Tamsui and Taipei. Later, however, the faithful in Banka reneged. Both the image and the imperial plaque are permanently on display at Wanhua now. Incidentally, all statues of the sect founder look exactly the same, unlike those of Avalokitesvara or the Goddess of Mercy who may even appear like a macho warrior-general.

In fact, General Sun had to submit his memorial, even if he had not prayed for help from the sect founder. The residents of Tamsui all believed it was their guardian god who dispatched his four warrior-generals to Tamsui to defeat the French marines. They were convinced that it was impossible for the poorly armed Chinese troops to rout the superior French Foreign Legionnaires without the divine help of Black-Faced Sect Founder, who called up an army led by his Generals Zhang, Huang, Su and Li (張，黃，蘇，李) from Heaven.

The faithful believe their sect founder never failed to get his nose drop from his face to tell them whatever danger was coming to them. His adherents in Tamsui saw the nose fall before U.S. carrier-based Grumman fighters raided their hometown on September 27, 1944. Tamsui was bombarded twice on that day. The American warplanes hit the port on their way to Taipei and hit again as they were flying back to their carriers. But no damage was done to the residents, so they believed, because their guardian god had first warned them and then protected them against any harm.

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