Ten Kings of Hell

Medieval Chinese Buddhists believed that a panel of ten judges, called the Kings of Hell, evaluated the souls of the dead through a bureaucratic process lasting up to three years. Painted during the Southern Song Dynasty, this scroll is one of a set illustrating the trials of souls before the Kings.

Each scroll depicts a King passing judgment alongside illustrations of the tortures awaiting the guilty. In this scroll, the King examines documents while the dead are transformed into beasts of burden. One guilty soul is thrown onto a field of knives.

This scroll was painted with high-quality pigments on expensive silk, a status object for the person who commissioned it. The artist painted on both sides of the silk to make the color more vibrant. This has helped preserve the scrolls