A RECORD OF ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN
As gathered from the oldest accounts that remain
PROLOGUE — CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
On the Matter of Yanluo Wang — 閻羅王 — the King of Hell
His name is Yanluo Wang — 閻羅王.
Yanluo — 閻羅 — is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit Yamarāja — यमराज.
Yama — यम — in Sanskrit means to restrain. To bind. To prop up. To hold in place.
Rāja — राज — means king. Sovereign.
Wang — 王 — is the Chinese character for king.
Together — 閻羅王 — King Yama. King Yan. The King of Hell.
He is also called Yan Wang — 閻王 — the abbreviated form.
He is also called Yanlao Wang — 閻老王 — Old King Yan.
He is also called Diyu Zhi Wang — 地獄之王 — King of the Underworld.
In Korean he is called Yomra Daewang — 염라대왕 — Great King Yomra.
In Japanese he is called Enma Daiō — 閻魔大王 — Great King Enma.
In Vietnamese he is called Diêm Vương — 閻王.
He is the ruler of Diyu — 地獄.
He is the judge of all the dead.
He has judged every soul that has ever died.
He judges them still.
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On the origin. The Rigveda — 梨俱吠陀 — Li Ju Fei Tuo.
His origin is in the Rigveda — 梨俱吠陀 — the oldest of the Hindu sacred texts.
The Rigveda is dated to approximately 1500 to 1200 before the common era.
In the Rigveda, Yama is depicted as the first mortal to die, son of the sun god Vivasvat, who pioneers the path to the afterlife and rules over the departed souls in a paradise-like realm, embodying dharma as a benevolent judge.
In this oldest account he is not a terrifying king.
He is the first man to die.
Because he was first, he pioneered the path.
Because he pioneered the path, he knows it best.
Because he knows it best, he guides others through it.
He is a benevolent guide in the oldest account.
He is a compassionate judge.
He was always this way.
This did not change when he became Chinese.
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On the transformation through Buddhism.
This archetype was transmitted to Buddhism around the 5th century BCE, where Yama evolves into a more fearsome enforcer of karma, judging souls and overseeing hellish realms.
Buddhism reached China along the Silk Road — 絲綢之路 — Sichou Zhi Lu.
The Mahayana texts entered China in the second century of the common era.
With them came Yama.
The figure of Yanluo Wang traces his origins to the Indian deity Yama, the Hindu and Buddhist god of death, who was introduced to China through the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road. Over time, Yama's image was localized and integrated into Chinese belief systems, gradually transforming into Yanluo Wang.
His name and title in the Indian Sanskrit language, Yama Raja, was phonetically transliterated into Chinese as Yanmo Luoshe — 閻魔羅社 — and later shortened to Yanmoluo — 閻魔羅 — or just Yanluo — 閻羅. The Chinese character for raja — king — is wang — 王 — and it was appended to the abbreviated name resulting in his Chinese name Yanluo Wang — 閻羅王.
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On the sinicization.
Yanluo Wang embodies a syncretic figure blending Indic concepts of karma and retribution with Chinese bureaucratic traditions of moral accountability.
The Chinese did not simply adopt Yama as he was.
They transformed him.
They placed him within a bureaucratic structure — 官僚體制 — guanliao tizhi — that reflected the organization of the Chinese imperial government.
This underworld structure deliberately imitates the Tang imperial bureaucracy, particularly the Three Departments and Six Ministries system — 三省六部制 — San Sheng Liu Bu Zhi — transforming hell into a purgatorial administration for karmic retribution.
He became a magistrate — 地方官 — difang guan.
He wore judicial robes — 法官袍 — faguan pao.
He held judicial documents — 司法文書 — sifa wenshu.
He presided over a court — 法庭 — fating.
He was no longer a god of death in the Hindu sense.
He was an administrator of justice in the Chinese sense.
The two concepts merged.
The result was Yanluo Wang.
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On the competing versions of his role.
Drawing from various Indian texts and local culture, the Chinese tradition proposes several versions concerning the number of hells and deities who are at their head.
It seems that originally there were two competing versions: 136 hells — 8 big ones each divided into 16 smaller ones — or 18 hells, each led by a subordinate king of Yanluo Wang.
In the oldest Chinese Buddhist accounts he was the supreme ruler of all of hell.
All other kings of hell were subordinate to him.
He commanded them all.
Then the Tang dynasty — 唐朝 — Tang Chao — introduced a new system.
The Daoist-influenced ten court system placed him as one of ten equal kings.
He was assigned the Fifth Court.
He remained the most famous.
He remained the most recognized.
He remained the most depicted in popular iconography.
But he was no longer supreme.
He was fifth.
There is also an alternate tradition that says King Yama is the leader of all the ten kings, and not just the king of the fifth court.
Both traditions exist.
Both are recorded here.
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On his appearance.
He is always depicted as a man — 男性 — nanxing.
He is large — 巨大 — juda.
He has a scowling red face — 怒容紅臉 — nurong hong lian.
He has bulging eyes — 眼睛突出 — yanjing tuchu — that can see every right and every wrong of every soul brought before him.
He has a long black beard — 長黑鬍鬚 — chang hei huxu.
He wears traditional Chinese robes — 中國傳統袍服 — Zhongguo chuantong paofu.
He wears a judge's cap — 法官帽 — faguan mao — or a crown — 皇冠 — huang guan — that bears the Chinese character for king — 王 — Wang.
He sits on a grand throne — 寶座 — baozuo.
His expression is stern — 嚴肅 — yansu.
His posture is authoritative — 威嚴 — weiyan.
He holds documents — 文書 — wenshu — recording the deeds of the dead.
He appears on Chinese Hell Bank Notes — 冥幣 — ming bi — in the position reserved for political figures on regular currency.
The living burn these notes so the dead have currency in the underworld.
His face authorizes the currency.
His authority backs the money.
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On his court and attendants.
He does not work alone.
His principal attendant is the judge Pan Guan — 判官 — Pan Guan.
Pan Guan holds the Book of Life and Death — 生死簿 — Shengsi Bu.
The Book lists every mortal who has ever lived.
It lists the date of their birth.
It lists the date of their death.
It lists every significant act they performed between those two dates.
It was said of Pan Guan that he can principle the world of living matters in daytime and do Hades justice when the night breaks, trailing living people and ghosts, omniscient as god himself.
Pan Guan is the most renowned of all four important judges in the court.
His brush can add to or remove from the Book.
When Sun Wukong — 孫悟空 — came to the underworld and wiped his own name from the Book, he wiped the names of all the monkeys he knew at the same time.
Yanluo Wang was powerless to stop him.
The Book had been altered.
He reported the incident to the Jade Emperor.
Ox-Head — 牛頭 — Niu Tou — and Horse-Face — 馬面 — Ma Mian — also serve in his court.
They collect the newly dead.
They bring each soul before him one by one.
They have been doing this since before recorded time.
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On the Mirror of Karma — 業鏡台 — Ye Jing Tai.
The Mirror of Karma stands in his court.
The Mirror shows the soul a complete playback of its own life.
Every significant act.
Every sin.
Every virtue.
The soul cannot lie about what the mirror shows.
The mirror is not a piece of glass.
It is a magical artifact — 法器 — faji — that responds to the soul's own karma — 業 — ye.
The soul's karma produces the images.
The mirror only shows them.
No one controls what appears.
The karma does.
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On his own punishment.
Yanluo Wang himself suffers punishment.
This is recorded in the texts.
Even fierce King Yama was subject to the punishments of hell. As a created being, he was still a soul that had to experience Diyu. Lord Yama's punishment was that he had to be tied down to a scalding hot metal platform three times daily while molten metal was poured down his throat.
This is his punishment for the compassion he showed when he was still judge of the first court.
He let too many souls pass.
He was lenient.
He was demoted.
He continues to suffer for it.
Three times a day he is tied down.
Three times a day the molten metal is poured.
He endures it.
He continues judging.
He continues showing mercy where he can.
The punishment does not change him.
He cannot stop being what he is.
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On the demotion. The verified account.
He was originally the first judge — 第一法官 — di yi faguan — of the underworld.
Every soul that arrived faced him first.
The Britannica account records precisely: formerly the position of first judge was held by Yanluo Wang, a Chinese form of the Indian lord of death Yama, but he was demoted to the fifth court because of his leniency.
The Mythopedia account records: in some versions of Yan Wang's myth, he's demoted to the status of Fifth King of Hell because he was too lenient.
The Timeless Myths account records: in later versions of the myth of King Yama, he is actually demoted from his position for being too lenient on sinners.
All three accounts agree.
He was demoted.
He was demoted for leniency.
Leniency is compassion applied to judgment.
Compassion is mercy given without full requirement of justice.
He was the most compassionate judge in hell.
He was the worst judge in hell for that reason.
He was moved to the fifth position.
He still judges.
He still shows mercy where he can.
The punishment continues.
The mercy continues.
Both are his nature.
Neither will stop.
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On the position as a title.
In some versions, King Yama is not necessarily a person as much as it is a title. An individual could serve a term as King Yama in hell, and then reincarnate back to the earthly realm.
Yanluo Wang was sometimes considered to be a position in the celestial hierarchy, rather than an individual.
This is an important distinction.
If Yanluo Wang is a title, then any individual could hold it.
Any virtuous person could be assigned the position.
Specific historical figures are said to have served as Yanluo Wang.
The most widely known is Bao Zheng — 包拯.
He was a real historical figure.
He served as a magistrate during the reign of Emperor Renzong — 宋仁宗 — of the Song dynasty — 宋朝 — Song Chao.
He was famous for his absolute incorruptibility.
He was famous for his refusal to show favoritism regardless of social rank.
He prosecuted the powerful.
He protected the powerless.
He was said to judge the living by day and the dead by night.
He became so associated with incorruptible judgment that popular belief identified him as Yanluo Wang.
He replaced the original deity in many folk traditions.
The original deity is still present in the texts.
Both coexist.
Both are recorded here.
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On the encounter with Sun Wukong — 孫悟空.
The Journey to the West — 西遊記 — Xiyou Ji — contains the most detailed surviving description of Yanluo Wang in a narrative context.
Sun Wukong was dragged to hell by Ox-Head and Horse-Face.
He was brought before Yanluo Wang.
Yanluo Wang consulted the Book of Life and Death.
Sun Wukong's name was there.
He demanded his name be removed.
He threatened Yanluo Wang.
Yanluo Wang's response: The great sage, do not be angry. The number of people of the same name in the world are many. It must be that those who arrested you made a mistake.
This was not fear.
This was Yanluo Wang being practical.
He could not fight Sun Wukong.
He gave ground.
Sun Wukong wiped his own name from the Book.
He wiped the names of all the monkeys he knew.
Yanluo Wang reported the incident to the Jade Emperor.
This report triggered the events that led to the heavenly war.
Yanluo Wang performed his duty.
He could not prevent what happened.
He reported it accurately.
He is always accurate.
He is also always merciful.
These two qualities do not cancel each other.
They coexist in him.
They are why he is the most interesting of all the kings of hell.
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On the alternate tradition: Yanluo Wang as supreme ruler.
As noted, there is an alternate tradition.
In this tradition Yanluo Wang is not merely the fifth king.
He is the supreme ruler — 最高統治者 — zuigao tongzhi zhe — of all the courts.
All other kings are subordinate to him.
He oversees the entire system.
In some versions, Yanluo Wang divides Diyu into eight, ten, or eighteen courts each ruled by a different Yanluo Wang.
In this reading, all ten kings are versions of Yanluo Wang.
The name Yanluo Wang is not one person.
It is the principle of judgment in the underworld.
All ten kings embody that principle.
All ten kings are aspects of the same function.
The function is judgment.
The function is justice.
The function is the weighing of a life against itself.
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On his birthday.
His birthday is the eighth day of the first lunar month — 正月初八 — zheng yue chu ba.
On this day offerings are made.
Incense is burned.
Prayers are spoken for deceased relatives who may be undergoing judgment.
The prayers ask for leniency.
They are addressed to the right person.
Leniency is his nature.
It always was.
It was his nature when he judged from the First Court.
It is his nature as he judges from the Fifth.
It was his nature before he was sent to Indonesia.
It remains his nature there.
He is making congee.
He does not know he is Yanluo Wang.
But the mercy is still present.
It does not require memory.
It is what he is.
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On his relationship with Ksitigarbha — 地藏菩薩 — Dizang Pusa.
From the mid-Tang period, the Bodhisattva Dizang assumes a supervisory role, intervening in judgments to ensure fairness, as depicted in texts like the Dizang Pusa Benyuan Jing, where Dizang sits alongside Yanluo Wang to review cases and mitigate errors.
Ksitigarbha sits beside him.
Not above him.
Not below him.
Beside him.
They review cases together.
Yanluo Wang judges.
Ksitigarbha mitigates.
They work together.
They have worked together for a very long time.
When Yanluo Wang was demoted, he went to Ksitigarbha.
Not to the Jade Emperor.
Not to the Three Pure Ones.
To the one who had always sat beside him.
The one whose oath was also about mercy.
The one who understood.
Ksitigarbha understood.
They have worked together for a very long time.
END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT