This article discusses the relationship between Daoism and local religious practice by means of a purification ritual, ”zhuyou jingwu” (lit. boiling oil to purify houses). I start by illustrating how this ritual is recorded in Daoist literature and performed by Daoist priests. I then describe how it is practised by local people in southwest Taiwan. I analyze how the ritual, when practised by ordinary people, is intertwined with the Chinese concepts of place, body, and gender; and how the important Daoist cosmology involving a center surrounded by four directions is embodied by the local spirit medium. In this way, I show the shortcomings of previous research which sees Daoism as playing an exclusive role in providing the structure for local religion. This article, in contrast, elucidates how Daoism, local belief, and Chinese cultural concepts simultaneously interact in this purification ritual to expel evil power and rejuvenate the local society.