Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27
1204
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1204
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27 is a 1204 unspecified by Unknown, a ming_painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a crowded courtroom in hell. A king sits on a throne while demons drag souls forward. Scribes record deeds in ledgers, and tortured figures twist in the foreground. This painting is one page from a set of ten. Each king judges a soul before it can be reborn. The scene mixes Buddhist ideas with Chinese bureaucracy—like a government office, but for the afterlife. To see more of these hell courts, look up *china, southern song dynasty (1127-1279)*.
