The Ten Courts of Hell
A Supplement to Chapter 26
In the Chinese tradition, the dead do not simply die. They are judged.
When a person dies, their soul is collected by Ox-Head and Horse-Face. They are brought to the gates of hell. They walk the Yellow Spring Road. They stand before the first court.
There are ten courts. Each court is ruled by a king. Each king punishes a specific kind of sin.
This is how it works.
---
First Court — King Qinguang (秦廣王)
Every soul arrives here first.
The king consults the Book of Life and Death. He reviews the soul's deeds. If the soul was good, it bypasses punishment and goes directly to reincarnation via the Golden Bridge or Silver Bridge . If the soul was evil, it is sent to the Mirror Platform .
The Mirror Platform stands in this court. It is one zhang high (approximately 3.3 meters). It faces east. On its face are seven characters: "孽鏡臺前無好人" — "Before the Mirror of Sin, no one is innocent" . The mirror is large enough for ten people to see at once .
The soul stands before the mirror. It sees every sin it committed. It sees the consequences of those sins. It cannot lie. The mirror shows the truth .
After the mirror, the soul is sent to the appropriate court for punishment.
Special Cases:
· Suicides without just cause (not for loyalty, filial piety, or justice) are imprisoned in Hunger and Thirst Prisons. They relive their death scene repeatedly. If they did not frighten the living, they may eventually be sent to the Second Court. If they frightened others seeking revenge, they go directly to Avici Hell .
· Monks or nuns who skip words in chanting are sent to a small dark room with a single thread of oil lamp to complete their chants correctly .
---
Second Court — King Chujiang (楚江王)
This court punishes those who harmed others through violence, fraud, or neglect.
It contains the Living Hell (活大地獄) and sixteen smaller hells. The court is 8,000 li across . The sixteen lesser hells include: Black Cloud Sand Hell, Excrement and Urine Mud Hell, Five Forks Hell, Starvation Hell, Burning Thirst Hell, Pus and Blood Hell, Copper Axe Hell, Multiple Copper Axe Hell, Iron Armor Hell, Dark Prison Hell, Chicken Hell, Ash River Hell, Chopping and Cutting Hell, Sword Leaf Hell, Fox and Wolf Hell, and Freezing Ice Hell .
Crimes punished here :
· Assault and robbery
· Corruption and fraud
· Prostitution
· Kidnapping of minors
· Recommending harmful medicines for profit
· Concealing age or illness in marriage arrangements for profit
· Withholding maidservants from being released after adulthood
· Seizing others' property
· Maiming others (destroying eyes, ears, hands, feet)
Punishments include: being buried in excrement, starved, burned, frozen, hacked by copper axes, or devoured by wolves .
Merit that avoids this court: Explaining the Yuli Baochao (Jade Record) to others, printing and distributing it, being a doctor who treats the sick for free, providing free food to the poor, giving money to those in need .
---
Third Court — King Songdi (宋帝王)
This court punishes those who betrayed trust or authority.
It contains the Black Rope Hell (黑繩大地獄) and sixteen smaller hells. The court is 8,000 li across .
Crimes punished here :
· Ungratefulness
· Disrespecting the elderly
· Drug trafficking
· Tomb raiding
· Escaping from prison
· Tempting others into crime
· Disrespectful subordinates
· Slander
· Instigating lawsuits and disputes
Punishments include: having the heart ripped out by imps, being chained to red-hot copper pillars (paoluo, 炮烙), or being sawn in half .
---
Fourth Court — King Wuguan (五官王)
This court punishes those who profited from dishonesty or silence.
It contains the Blood Pool Hell (血池地獄) and sixteen smaller hells .
Crimes punished here :
· Tax evasion
· Rent evasion
· Business fraud and dishonesty
· Civil unrest
· Those who know cures but do not share them (the sin of silence)
Punishments include: being pounded to bits with a spiky mortar and pestle, or ground into paste .
---
Fifth Court — King Yanluo (閻羅王)
This court punishes those who took life or violated the sacred.
It contains the Screaming Hell (叫喚大地獄) and sixteen smaller hells called "Heart-Piercing" (诛心小地狱) .
History: Yanluo Wang was formerly the judge of the First Court. The Highest God demoted him to the Fifth Court because he proved too compassionate. He allowed wronged souls—particularly murder victims—to return to the world for another life to seek justice . His compassion, not his judgment, was his crime.
The Viewing Home Tower (望鄉臺): Located in this court. Built by Yanluo Wang himself . Description from the Yuli Baochao :
· Curved in front like a bow, facing east, west, and south
· Extends 81 li from one extreme to the other
· Back part like the string of a bow, enclosed by a wall of sharp swords
· 490 feet high, its sides are knife-blades
· Sixty-three storeys in total
· Only evil souls climb it. Good souls bypass it. Those with equal good and evil do not come here .
From the tower, wicked souls behold their old homes close by. They see and hear what is happening. They hear old and young talking together. They see their last wishes disregarded and their instructions disobeyed. Everything has changed. Property they accumulated is dissipated and gone. Spouses remarry. Strangers possess the old estate .
Crimes punished here :
· Murderers
· Hunters and fishermen
· Religious sinners
· Conspiracy
· Predatory lending (loan sharks)
· Those who lust
Punishments include: climbing the Mountain of Knives (刀山) or being thrown into the Sea of Blood .
After punishment: If sins are fully atoned, sent to reincarnation. If not, sent to other courts .
---
Sixth Court — King Biancheng (卞城王)
This court punishes those who deceived or disrespected sacred things.
It contains the Great Screaming Hell (大叫喚大地獄) and sixteen smaller hells . The lesser hells include Constant Suffering Hell and Burning Heart and Liver Hell .
Wandering City (枉死城): This court oversees the Wandering City. The Wandering City is for souls who died unjustly—by execution, murder, accident, or disaster. They wait here until their original lifespan would have ended. During this time, they can view how their enemies receive retribution . Only after their original lifespan ends are they judged by the courts.
Crimes punished here :
· Cheating and swindling
· Cursing others
· Kidnapping
· Misuse of books or knowledge
· Breaking laws
· Wasting food
· Pornography
· Blasphemy against heaven and earth
· Disrespect to sacred things
Punishments include: being skewered on a tree of knives, or sawn in half .
---
Seventh Court — King Taishan (泰山王)
This court punishes those who desecrated graves or destroyed families.
It contains the Grinding Hell (礁磨肉醬地獄) and sixteen smaller hells . The lesser hells include Corpse Mound Hell and Iron Bed Hell .
Origin of the Name: Taishan (Mount Tai) was associated with the afterlife long before the Buddhist hell concept arrived in China. The oldest Chinese belief held that the dead went to Mount Tai. This association was absorbed into the Buddhist hell structure .
Crimes punished here :
· Stealing bones or ashes from graves
· Violating graves
· Spreading rumors that destroy families
· Selling human flesh
· Consuming human flesh
Punishment: being ground into meat paste .
---
Eighth Court — King Dushi (都市王)
This court punishes those who were unfilial.
It contains the Great Burning Hell (大熱惱大地獄) and sixteen smaller hells . The lesser hells include Burning Carriage Hell and Fire Hell .
Crimes punished here :
· Unfilial behavior toward parents
· Causing parents sorrow or anger
· Disrespecting elders
Filial piety is the most fundamental virtue. Its violation earns the harshest punishment. Punishments involve fire and burning .
---
Ninth Court — King Pingdeng (平等王)
This court punishes the most severe sins.
It contains the Iron Net Avici Hell (鐵網阿鼻地獄)—the deepest, most terrible hell . The lesser hells include Iron Rope Hell and Iron Wheel Hell .
Duration: Souls stay here until every person they harmed has been reborn. This is the longest sentence in the hell system .
Crimes punished here :
· Arson
· Abortion
· Murderers who already served mortal sentences
· Rapists
· Obscene painters, writers, and their clients
---
Tenth Court — King Zhuanlun (轉輪王)
This court does not punish. It determines reincarnation .
After all punishments are complete, the soul arrives here. The king decides the next life: sex, lifespan, family, wealth, every condition of the next existence .
The Six Paths of Reincarnation (六道):
· Gods (天道)
· Demi-gods (阿修羅道)
· Humans (人道)
· Animals (畜生道)
· Hungry ghosts (餓鬼道)
· Hell beings (地獄道)
Before Rebirth — Meng Po (孟婆): The soul comes to the Tower of Forgetting. Meng Po, the Old Woman of Forgetfulness, gives the soul her soup (孟婆湯). The soup erases all memory of past lives. What was done is forgotten. What was suffered is forgotten. The soul begins again .
Souls are then sent back to the world, reincarnated as animals, poor humans, ill or ugly humans, or rich humans, depending on their prior behavior .
---
The Bureaucracy of Hell — Dongyue Temple Structure
Beyond the Ten Courts, hell operates as a vast bureaucracy. Beijing's Dongyue Temple (built 1319) physically represents this structure with 76 departments across 18 levels . Life-size statues of divinities "work" in offices with writing brushes and scrolls, managing this life and the next .
The departments include :
Departments of Judgment:
· Department of Demons and Monsters
· Department of Poisoning
· Department of Controlling Bullying and Cheating
· Department of Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death (starvation, clubbing, death in battle, animal attacks, floods, insanity, "falling into an abyss," tricks by evil people or ghosts, disease, suicide, and others)
· Department of Unjust Death
· Department of Interrogation and Examination
· Department of Urging
· Department of Upholding Integrity
Departments of the Dead:
· Department of Homeless Ghosts (separate from Wandering Ghosts)
· Department of Signing Documents (separate from Department of Signed Documents)
· Department of Reclaiming Life
· Department of Reincarnation
· Department of Resurrection
· Department of Hell (inside hell)
Departments of Life and Balance:
· Department of Measurements (standardizes good and evil acts)
· Department of Happiness
· Department of Loyalty
· Department of Preserving Wilderness
· Department of Flying Birds
· Animal Department
· Department for Distribution of Medicine
· Department for Halting Destruction of Living Beings
Departments of Natural Forces:
· Department of Wind Gods
· Department of Rain Gods (featuring statues of a man with a fish head and a man with a frog's head)
· Departments for gods of Earth, rivers, cities, and towns
Appeals Process: The bureaucracy has multiple layers of checks and balances. If someone's good-bad-deed ratio is miscalculated, there are several levels of appeals .
Hell Within Hell: There is a Department of Hell inside hell .
---
The Higher Authority — Who Rules Hell
The Ten Kings are not the highest authority. They serve higher powers.
Ksitigarbha (Dizang, 地藏菩薩): According to the Yuli Baochao, Ksitigarbha is regarded as the head of the underworld, with a status higher than the Ten Kings . The kings stand in his presence as a mark of deference .
The Ten Great Saviors (十方救苦天尊): In Taoist tradition, the Ten Kings are transformations of the Ten Great Saviors—Taoist deities from the ten directions who manifested as kings to govern hell. The kings are not separate beings but manifestations of higher Taoist deities .
Dongyue Dadi (东岳大帝): The god of Mount Tai (Taishan) was traditionally believed to be the purview of hell. Many Taoists traditionally believed hell is the purview of Dongyue, the god of Taishan Mountain, before the Ten Courts system was fully developed . His son-in-law, San Mao, was put in charge of life and death and all supernatural entities .
Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝): The prologue of the Yuli Baochao states that the tract was submitted to the Jade Emperor by Yanluo Wang and the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Guanyin). The Highest God (Jade Emperor) ultimately approved the system and demoted Yanluo Wang .
---
The Timing of Judgment
Different traditions record different timing:
The 49-Day Cycle: Judgment begins immediately but continues in stages. The first court judges on the 7th day after death, the second on the 14th, continuing through the 49th day .
The 35th Day: Buddhist tradition sometimes emphasizes judgment on the 35th day after death, when the Ten Kings judge the deceased together .
Wandering City Timing: Souls who died unjustly (execution, accident, disaster) wait in the Wandering City until their original lifespan would have ended. Only then are they judged .
---
The Black Flag (黑令旗)
For those who die with great grievance—particularly those executed unjustly or murdered—the courts may grant a black flag .
The flag is invisible. It allows the soul to return to the living world to seek justice. No deity can block it. They can only try to mediate .
The flag is granted by King Yanluo (Yan Wang), with the approval of Ksitigarbha . Yanluo Wang's compassion—allowing wronged souls to return—was the reason for his demotion from the First Court .
---
Sources
This supplement is drawn from:
· The Yuli Baochao (玉歷寶鈔 — Jade Record), a Song dynasty text attributed to the Taoist priest Danchi (淡痴), which is the most detailed source for the Ten Courts
· The Dizang Shiwang Jing (地藏十王經 — Scripture of Dizang and the Ten Kings), a Tang dynasty Buddhist text
· The oral traditions and temple structures preserved at Dongyue Temple in Beijing, which physically represents the 76-department bureaucracy of hell