Afflictions caused by spirits and their treatments have been abundantly described in classics of Taoism and classics of Buddhism. Chinese traditional medical books also documented the causes and symptoms of spirit-related afflictions, and even provided specific treatment plans. The present study aims to establish a framework of religious diagnoses and treatments of spirit-caused ailments by means of analyzing classics of Taoism and Buddhism, and traditional medical books. The framework is accompanied by authentic cases to demonstrate the effect of the treatments. The first chapter of the study introduces the motivation of research, addresses the research questions, highlights previous studies and describes the methodology. The second chapter summarizes spirit-related afflictions in classics of Taoism and Buddhism. The third chapter presents what have been documented in traditional medical books—the causes, symptoms and classifications of spirit-related illnesses and how they are treated with religious approaches. Following that in the fourth chapter are case studies. A total of 31 cases are analyzed with the focus on how spirit-related afflictions are diagnosed religiously. In the next chapter, the analysis of the healing process is provided. The analysis focuses on the cause and location of the afflictions and the recovery process. The last chapter concludes the study. With the contextual study of spirit-related afflictions and case studies, it is hoped that the present study can provide a framework as a reference for the public in the future.
