The Transmogrification Enclosure

Other hell scrolls caption this image with the warning, "Anyone who did not value good fortune in a past existence will become an animal in the next existence." The Vidor hell scroll catalogue similarly describes this image as follows:

The gate at the left side is for those who are doomed to become animals. In front of this gate stand those who had become animals because during their lifeimes they did not respect the five precious grains and wasted them. They were also ungrateful to those who helped them. Now he is waiting to enter the Gate of Transformation.

As is common when comparing different sets of scrolls, the crimes do not always match up with the same tortures and penalties.

The equivalent in the Jade registers is the fifth hell's "Chamber for transforming one's nature" 變姓所, and the inscription next to it reads, "If in life one is not careful about the five grains, then after death one will be transformed into a domestic animal" 生前不惜五穀，死後變就六畜. The question then arises whether being transformed into an animal -- which is considered a deplorable fate -- is here among the rest of the in-hell tortures or is simply a recognition of how one will be reborn when leaving the tenth hell.

	Translations Barn sign: Transmogrification Enclosure Below barn (script not shown): At the end of the day and the close of the season, a greatly evil person may tell himself to foolishly and wastefully consume grain and meat, but without fail they will receive their torturous recompense. Tell everyone and advise the world. Appearance in a Taiwanese visit to hell For a description of the Transmogrification Enclosure (I think) from a Taiwanese spiritual medium who had engaged in a series of hell tours between 1976 and 1979, see Voyages to hell, Chapter 19.
Other hell scrolls caption this image with the warning, "Anyone who did not value good fortune in a past existence will become an animal in the next existence." The Vidor hell scroll catalogue similarly describes this image as follows: The gate at the left side is for those who are doomed to become animals. In front of this gate stand those who had become animals because during their lifeimes they did not respect the five precious grains and wasted them. They were also ungrateful to those who helped them. Now he is waiting to enter the Gate of Transformation. As is common when comparing different sets of scrolls, the crimes do not always match up with the same tortures and penalties. The equivalent in the Jade registers is the fifth hell's "Chamber for transforming one's nature" 變姓所, and the inscription next to it reads, "If in life one is not careful about the five grains, then after death one will be transformed into a domestic animal" 生前不惜五穀，死後變就六畜. The question then arises whether being transformed into an animal -- which is considered a deplorable fate -- is here among the rest of the in-hell tortures or is simply a recognition of how one will be reborn when leaving the tenth hell.

	A second example of a transmogrification enclosure from another hell scroll (C4).
	A third example of a transmogrification enclosure from another hell scroll (E9). (This particular scroll set was never finished - and never used - and it lacks text where it should obviously be inscribed.)

The Transmogrification Enclosure

Translations

Appearance in a Taiwanese visit to hell