The Magistrate

Translations

Magistrate title: Fifth court - King Senluo (a.k.a. "Yanluo" or "Yama")

Couplets to either side of magistrate:

Your encountering ghosts and murderous violence here is all just facing the evil of your past.
One who understands will daily realize that your chief sins become your climb up the knife hill and sword tree.

Banner: Leading off to the Western Heaven

Document: Reward goodness

Appearance in a Taiwanese visit to hell

For a description of Yama from a Taiwanese spiritual medium who had engaged in a series of hell tours between 1976 and 1979, see Voyages to hell, Chapter 31.

The Buddhist poet Hanshan from the seventh or eight century warned the living to be wary of Yama, and Robert G. Henricks translates his advice as follows:

I urge you, put an end to your comings and goings;
Never vex him -- old Yama.
Lose your footing, and you'll fall into the three evil paths [of suffering in hell, becoming a hungry ghost or being reborn as an animal];
Your bones will be ground into powder, having been pounded one thousand times!
For a long time you'll be a person in Hell;
Forever cut off from the ways of this life.
I exhort you -- believe in my words;
Recognize, hold on to, the treasure inside your robe.

A second example of Yama from another hell scroll (F1).

A third example of Yama from another hell scroll (S6).

A fourth example (dated 1735) of Yama from another hell scroll (S21).

Yama as portrayed in the late Qing woodblock text Fengxing jueshi zhenjing 奉行覺世真經 (1882).

A woodcut of Yama, the couplets warning that even the greatest of the age can't avoid wuchang or "transcience," their fleeting prosperty nothing more than a solitary springtime dream. From C.A.S. Williams' Outlines of Chinese symbolism, first edition (Peiping: Customs College Press, 1931).

King Yama as depicted at Fengdu, the City of Ghosts.

Ksitigarbha, Mulian and Yama (from left to right) as depicted at the Dazu Rock Carvings.

	Translations Magistrate title: Fifth court - King Senluo (a.k.a. "Yanluo" or "Yama") Couplets to either side of magistrate: Your encountering ghosts and murderous violence here is all just facing the evil of your past. One who understands will daily realize that your chief sins become your climb up the knife hill and sword tree. Banner: Leading off to the Western Heaven Document: Reward goodness Appearance in a Taiwanese visit to hell For a description of Yama from a Taiwanese spiritual medium who had engaged in a series of hell tours between 1976 and 1979, see Voyages to hell, Chapter 31.
The Buddhist poet Hanshan from the seventh or eight century warned the living to be wary of Yama, and Robert G. Henricks translates his advice as follows: I urge you, put an end to your comings and goings; Never vex him -- old Yama. Lose your footing, and you'll fall into the three evil paths [of suffering in hell, becoming a hungry ghost or being reborn as an animal]; Your bones will be ground into powder, having been pounded one thousand times! For a long time you'll be a person in Hell; Forever cut off from the ways of this life. I exhort you -- believe in my words; Recognize, hold on to, the treasure inside your robe.

	A second example of Yama from another hell scroll (F1).
	A third example of Yama from another hell scroll (S6).
	A fourth example (dated 1735) of Yama from another hell scroll (S21).
	Yama as portrayed in the late Qing woodblock text Fengxing jueshi zhenjing 奉行覺世真經 (1882).
	A woodcut of Yama, the couplets warning that even the greatest of the age can't avoid wuchang or "transcience," their fleeting prosperty nothing more than a solitary springtime dream. From C.A.S. Williams' Outlines of Chinese symbolism, first edition (Peiping: Customs College Press, 1931).
	King Yama as depicted at Fengdu, the City of Ghosts.
	Ksitigarbha, Mulian and Yama (from left to right) as depicted at the Dazu Rock Carvings.