Because people lose all memory of hell once they are reborn, accounts about it are attributed to a handful of stories in which the living visited its courts. The most famous was that of Tang Emperor Taizong (r. 627-50) whose personal name was Li Shimin. In one version preserved in “The journey to the West,” the Jade Emperor of the heavens had ordered the execution of a river dragon who had shirked his duties, and this dragon asked Emperor Taizong to intercede on his behalf. Wanting to be merciful, the human emperor had promised to do so but, despite his best efforts, was unable to prevent the dragon from being beheaded. Mercy and grace are not effective amidst the mechanical meting out afterlife punishments.

Emperor Taizong then fell into a delirious dream-like state during which the executed river dragon dragged him down to the hell courts to answer for his failed promises. The emperor was cleared of any wrongdoing, but while he was there, he witnessed the spectacle of hell’s horrors and was told to record it for posterity so that the living knew what was in store for them if they did not mend their ways. Thus Emperor Taizong often appears standing next to the beheaded dragon on the first hell scroll, serving as a kind of “seal of approval” testifying to the veracity of these images.

This first hell is regularly portrayed as a preliminary realm where a liftetime's guilt and good deeds are reviewed whereupon tortures and rewards are then assigned. The karma mirror reveals all one's misdeeds as the perpetrators await the tortures to come, but the best of the best at this point are are here allowed to leave the endless cycle of death and rebirth, exiting to the Western Paradise of Amitabha Buddha.