Taizong's hell

Third court -
King Song Di

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B Series (B1-B10)

Hell scrolls are not individualistic works of art. Workshops painted hell scrolls en masse and relied upon guidebooks, pounces or stencils on one hand and a sheer repetition that resulted in producing near replicas on the other. The only mechanically reproduced set of hells scrolls on this website, B Series may appear garish and cheap compared to all its hand-painted counterparts here, but printed hell scrolls were simply a further step in mass production. While the B Series scrolls consist of pre-printed pages glued together like a billboard, they still include the popular stories found in their hand-painted cousins, including Mulian's search for his mother and Taizong's tour through hell. (Image: 71 X 146 cm.)

Li Quan and his wife

According to Chap. 11 of The journey west, Emperor Taizong promised southern melons to Yama in the underworld, and Liu Quan, out of shame for having caused his wife's suicide, volunteered to take poison and bring the melons to Yama. Yama got his melons, and Liu Quan was reunited with his wife, the couple then returning to the world of the living. For other depictions of Liu Quan and his melons, see I5 and S18.