Ten Kings of Hell

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 29

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 30

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 34

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 35

Created by Reina Gattuso.
 
The Chinese Buddhist conception of hell is called diyu. Chinese art depicts the Ten Kings of Hell, bureaucrats who punish transgressors. 
The Chinese Empire’s centralized administrative system informed Chinese cosmologies. For example, Chinese myth depicts ten kings or administrators presiding over diyu, or hell.1 
 
By the 3rd century CE, Buddhism had been adopted into Chinese culture.2 South Asian Buddhists invented the concept of naraka, a place where souls experienced torment. This concept traveled to China around the 8th century CE. Chinese people combined the imported concept of naraka with preexisting beliefs about the afterlife. The result was diyu. By the 7th century CE, Chinese Buddhists had begun writing about diyu as a bureaucratic realm.3
 
In one popular version of the myth, diyu has ten different levels, or courts, with a king presiding over each one. In some accounts, souls considered to have committed evil are sent to the levels of diyu that match their deeds.4 In others, souls progress sequentially through each of the ten courts.5 Each realm features different kinds of torture corresponding to the deeds done in life. For example, in the fifth court, those who were greedy for money are thrown on a mountain of knives.6 
 
This collection features brush paintings of the Kings of Hell from two different albums. Both date to the Song Dynasty. Each king has unique iconography and attributes, such as a karma scale or a wheel of rebirth.7 The kings are portrayed presiding over “defendants.” 
 
Citations
 
1 “Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27.” The Cleveland Museum of Art, https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2004.1.27. Accessed 21 June 2022.
 
2 Foy, Geoff. “Buddhism in China.” Asia Society, https://asiasociety.org/buddhism-china. Accessed 21 June 2022. 
 
3 Teiser, Stephen F. The Scripture on the Ten Kings. University of Hawai’i Press 1994. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Scripture_on_the_Ten_Kings_and_the_M/BJVG5mnpnL0C?hl=en&amp;gbpv=0. Accessed 26 July 2023. 
 
4 “Shiwang.” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shiwang. Accessed 21 July 2022.
 
5 “Ten Kings of Hell.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44506. Accessed 21 June 2022. 
 
6 Yong, Ced. “What Are China’s Horrific Ten Courts of Hell.” Owlcation, 19 April 2022, https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Horrific-Chinese-Ten-Courts-of-Hell. Accessed 6 July 2022. 
 
7Im McCormick, Sooa. “Korea in Focus: The Ten Kings of Hell and the Transnational Hellscape.” The Cleveland Museum of Art, https://www.clevelandart.org/research/in-the-library/collection-in-focus/ten-kings-hell-and-transnational-hellscape. Accessed 21 June 2022.

Ten Kings of Hell in Chinese Brush Painting

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