The hunted's revenge

Here the rabbit hunter becomes the rabbit to an animal larger than himself. In the Vidor Collection in which the rabbit is replaced with a bird, the longer cartouche reads, "Throughout his life he professionally shot sparrows and other birds. Everyone's fate is predestined and no one can change it. I do not dare to say anything, but look!"

What is interesting here (and in the Vidor Collection version) is the presence of the rifle, although such weapons were in use throughout the 19th century. (In fact, the Manchus were already using muskets prior to the mid-seventeenth century.) Even so, this rifle seems to be the only sign of relatively modern technology or Western influence in these scrolls, and in later depictions of hell, the possession of Western weaponry itself became reason for torture. As Wolfram Eberhard explains from a guide to hell dated to the 1930s:

Now, in this hell, five new sub-hells have recently been created in addition to the older sub-hells which were established much earlier. The new hells are specifically for persons who had contacts with foreigners: "The worst is in the present time to have contacts with foreigners or to buy machines and arms" and to copy foreign traits. The fictional visitors to these sub-hells saw persons in Western dress, with eyeglasses and official headgear. Women were dressed in Japanese or European clothes that were tight and short.... Another sub-hell is full of weapons, including smokeless cannons from Germany, machine guns, airplanes, balloons, torpedo boats, but also old, traditional Chinese weapons. The visitors saw an air show where the aircraft is stopped in midair and crashes. Poisonous gas is applied to the sinners....

Near the end of Fengdu's hell chambers, one encounters automatons made to look like Westerners among the sinners drinking the tea of forgetfulness -- a tea that caused sinners to forget the hell experience just before being reborn -- although why Westerners were present remains a bit of a mystery.