In the upper right of this image, the lords of the Southern and Northern Dippers are filling out the records of life and death. As one narrative excavated from Dunhuang in northwestern China describes them, here translated by Arthur Waley:

The man sitting to the north was the spirit of the northern Pole-star, the man sitting to the south was the spirit of the southern Pole-star. All men born from the womb pass through the hands of the southern star and he is overjoyed each time a man is born. But the northern star has charge of death. Every time a man dies, he is delighted.

These deeds are not limited to what one does but extends to what one thinks, and the living always stand between the potential for doing good and the potential for doing evil even within the realm of one's own thoughts. Here the lower register is dominated by a daydreaming man poised between doing good and evil. As to the former, he seems to be presenting a certificate or exam to a Buddhist monk as the deity Kuixing, bringing an official's hat, is about to mark the document as successful with his brush. As to the latter, he is chasing women.