Taizong's hell

Fifth court -
King Yama

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I Series Map
First court
Second court
Third court
Fourth court
Fifth court
Sixth court
Seventh court
Eighth court
Ninth court
Tenth court

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I Series (I1-I10)

Most sets of hell scrolls are sadly undated, but this particular set of ten was made around 1919, judging from a dedication date given on the seventh scroll. The eighth hell is clearly of the same template as S4, and of the sixth paths of reincarnation in the tenth hell, three of them are as humans rather than just two. (Image: 63 X 135 cm.)

Reciting sutras

According to Voyages to hell, Chapter 7, the chamber to the left of the mirror is where people hired to read out the sutras who did so in a shoddy manner are tortured by being forced to read them out in hell under a dying glimmer of light. For each word skipped, they must repeat it a hundred times. A scroll in the Donnelly collection (p. 95) includes the following explanatory inscription: "All monks and Taoist priests who in reciting sutras for others left out passages and monks who cheated people by accepting money for indulgences and then failed to recite the sutras, after death must come here to make up those prayers. After making them up they will be dragged outside this hall and judged again. They will be punished according to the sum total of their good and bad deeds."