There are several kinds of attendants in hell, the most famous pair who seize the living to bring them down being the Heibai wuchang, the "black officer and white officer of impermanence."
Translations
Hat: A glance brings you great fortune.
Sign: If evil is seen, then you’re arrested.
A second example of a beadle from another hell scroll (C5).
Donnelly (p. 29) gives the following explanation for this common inscription: "The meaning of this phrase written on the hat of the Seventh Lord is open to interpretation. The literal meaning suggests that if one looks at the Seventh Lord, luck will follow. A second and more plausible explanation is offered by scholars who hold that the Seventh Lord roams the world observing the good deeds of humans, while the Eighth Lord, his black faced companion, spies on the evil doers. Thus if the Seventh Lord glances your way, it can only be as a result of your virtuous deeds." That might work in the A series as he is coupled with a beadle making an arrest for doing evil.
A third example of a beadle from another hell scroll (S17).
A small statue of a hell beadle
In H.Y.Lowe's account of early 20th century Beijing entitled The adventures of Wu, he notes the following about the beadles of hell: "There are the ox-headed and horse-faced ushers, the white and black spirits of the self-strangulated suicides, who are said by some to have been given jobs in the next world's bureaucracy as they had no further interests in reincarnations having been so pessimistic about things in previous existences, and other unnamed and unnamable members of the coterie...." These beadles fit Lowe's description, not just because of their white attire but also because the elongated tongue denotes a suicide in these paintings.
A beadle as depicted at Fengdu, the City of Ghosts.
A second beadle as depicted at Fengdu, the City of Ghosts.
"You're arrested" demon sign as depicted at Fengdu, the City of Ghosts.
