The Chinese-Buddhist Legend of Diyu (Naraka): Morality, Punishment, and the Eighteen levels of Hell with King Yama as their Supreme Governor

[Cecil Lee]

The Chinese‑Buddhist Legend of Diyu (Naraka): Morality, Punishment, and the Architecture of Hell  

The legend of Diyu, often equated with the Buddhist Naraka in the Chinese cultural sphere, offers a vivid and terrifying vision of the afterlife. Far from being a vague realm of shadows, Diyu is imagined as a meticulously organized underground maze where every sin has its designated place and punishment. Governed by the stern and impartial King Yama, this hell serves both as a cosmic court of justice and a moral textbook, using extreme imagery to define, categorize, and deter wrongdoing.  

The Architecture of the Underworld  

In Chinese-Buddhist tradition, Diyu is not a single, uniform pit of torment. Instead, it takes the form of a complex, multi-layered labyrinth, made up of numerous levels and specialized chambers. These spaces are not random; they are structured according to the nature of human sins, suggesting a universe in which moral order is built into the very geography of the afterlife.

A central feature of this cosmology is the division between East and West Chambers. Each side contains its own series of punishment halls, and each hall is reserved for a particular type of offense. The result is a kind of moral map: where a soul ends up after death is determined by what it did in life. This spatial organization turns ethics into something concrete and navigable. Right and wrong are not abstract ideas; they become locations, destinations that the soul is inevitably drawn toward.

East Chambers: The Punishment of Social and Personal Betrayals  

The East Chambers primarily address sins that fracture trust and social harmony, or that involve personal betrayal and violence. These include gossip, adultery, murder, sowing discord, theft, arson, and hypocrisy. The punishments are intensely physical, and they symbolically reflect the nature of the sin.

For example, those who indulge in malicious gossip or slander may suffer the torment of tongue extraction, a punishment that directly targets the part of the body used to commit the offense. Adulterers and the sexually unfaithful may be subjected to tortures that mock and destroy the physical body they abused. Murderers, arsonists, and violent offenders are thrown into knife hills or boiling oil cauldrons, environments of constant pain that mirror the destruction they brought upon others.

This tight correspondence between wrongdoing and consequence reinforces a retributive logic. The punishment is not random cruelty; it is a distorted echo of the sin itself. By making the relationship between deed and suffering explicit, the legend teaches that no harmful act ends with death. Instead, every wrong plants a seed that will inevitably grow into a specific, fitting retribution.

West Chambers: Crimes Against Community, Life, and Responsibility  

The West Chambers focus on another set of moral failures, often broader social violations or grave breaches of responsibility: disrespect, suicide, unfair business practices, bullying, food waste, infanticide, corruption, and cruelty to animals. These sins are tied to the neglect or abuse of relationships—between seniors and juniors, rulers and subjects, parents and children, humans and animals, and individuals and society.

The punishments here are as gruesome as those in the East: drowning in blood, being sawed in half, crushed, dismembered, or burned, and being attacked or tormented by animals. Each punishment again underscores the moral logic of Diyu. Those who wasted food, for instance, may suffer hunger and degradation; those who abused power or bullied the weak face the humiliation and pain they once imposed on others. Those who took life—especially vulnerable lives like infants or animals—suffer in ways that reflect the enormity of their offense.

Interestingly, even acts like suicide, which in some traditions might be considered tragic rather than sinful, are punished in Diyu. This reflects a worldview in which life is a trust, not solely one’s own possession, and where abandoning responsibilities can be considered a moral failure with cosmic consequences.

Gruesome Imagery as Moral Education  

What is striking about Diyu is the extremity of its punishments. Bodies are torn apart, boiled, crushed, and dismembered; suffering is repeated endlessly; death itself offers no escape, because souls are repeatedly revived only to undergo the same torments again. The violence is deliberately excessive.

This excess serves several purposes. First, it amplifies the seriousness of sin. In everyday life, gossip or wasting food may seem minor, but in Diyu these acts are treated with terrifying gravity. The message is that every action is morally weighty and that seemingly small wrongs can have immense consequences.

Second, the horror functions as deterrence. Stories of Diyu were historically told in temples, at festivals, and within families to warn both children and adults. The gruesome details fix themselves in the imagination, making moral instructions memorable in a way that abstract sermons might not be. The legend thus acts as a visual and narrative system of social control, encouraging good behavior through fear of cosmic retribution.

Third, the concreteness of the punishments transforms morality into something tangible. Instead of saying “do not be corrupt,” the legend shows corrupt officials being crushed or dismembered; instead of urging kindness to animals, it depicts animal abusers tormented by beasts. The visceral shock forces listeners to confront the reality of suffering their actions might cause, even if in symbolic form.

King Yama: Judge of the Dead and Guardian of Moral Order  

At the center of this system stands King Yama, the ruler and supreme judge of Diyu. In Chinese-Buddhist and popular religious belief, Yama is not merely a demon lord but a judicial figure, akin to a cosmic magistrate. Souls pass before him to have their lives examined and their sins weighed. His role underscores a key philosophical point: punishment in Diyu is not anarchic; it is the result of a lawful, structured process.

Yama’s authority highlights the idea that the universe possesses an objective moral order. Just as earthly courts judge crimes, the afterlife has its own hierarchy, procedures, and officials. Even his birthday—traditionally observed on the 8th day of the 1st lunar month—reinforces his integration into the cyclical rhythms of the cosmos and the ritual life of the community. On that day, some people may offer prayers, not only to seek protection from misfortune but also as a reminder to live righteously.

Diyu as Mirror of Society  

Beyond religious doctrine, the legend of Diyu mirrors the concerns and values of the society that created it. The sins highlighted—corruption, bullying, betrayal, disrespect, infanticide, animal abuse, wastefulness—are precisely the behaviors that threaten social stability and communal wellbeing. By dramatizing these behaviors and attaching terrifying consequences to them, the legend reinforces social norms.

At the same time, the detailed categorization of sins and punishment suggests a world in which justice, though delayed, is never denied. This can be deeply consoling in contexts where earthly justice is imperfect, where the powerful seem to escape consequences while the weak suffer. Diyu offers the assurance that every account will be settled, every hidden crime uncovered, and every victim acknowledged in the court of the afterlife.

Conclusion  

The legend of Diyu (Naraka) is far more than a catalog of horrors. It is a moral map, a symbolic penal code, and a reflection of Chinese-Buddhist ideas about karma, retribution, and social harmony. Through its division into East and West Chambers, its precise matching of sins and punishments, its relentless emphasis on moral accountability, and its central figure of King Yama as cosmic judge, the story presents a universe in which no action is morally neutral and no wrongdoing is forgotten.

By making the invisible visible—turning ethical principles into vivid landscapes and bodily torments—the legend of Diyu seeks to shape human behavior in life through fear of what may come after death. In doing so, it preserves and transmits cultural values, reminding its audience that justice may be delayed, but it is never ultimately denied.

+++

Description of the Eighteen levels of Hell

1. This legend is based on Diyu 地獄 a Buddhist concept of the ream of hell known as Naraka.

1.1. Naraka is an underground maze with many levels of chambers where the souls of the dead are taken to atone for their sins committed when they were alive.

1.2. One Legend says that there are two main chambers: The East and The West Chambers of Hell.

2. Here, sinners are perpetually subjected to gruesome tortuers until infinity.

3. The East Chamber of Hell

3.1 Tongue Extraction Chamber: Still want to Gossip? Stop it!

3.2 Scissors Chamber: Finger torture, snip, snip for spoiling someone's marriage.

3.3 Chamber of Mirrors: Not yet punished for sins committed when alive? See self-reflection of past deeds, here.

3.4 Chamber of Ice: Not filial to elders and adulterers. Please come in. Let you freeze to death.

3.5 Chamber of Knives: Killers will enjoy climbing up a hill of sharp knives.

3.6 Chamber of Iron Hooks: Sow discords, trouble maker? Hung on iron hooks.

3.7 Chamber of Oil-Cauldron: Thieves, rapists and bad people most welcome.. to be fried in oil

3.8 Pressure cooker Chamber: Troublemakers and hyprocrites... come.. come.. we want you in this...

3.9 Chamber of melting Copper: Arsons are most welcome, here. Please come right in, please.. we are waiting for you.

4. The West Chamber of Hell

4.1 Pool of Blood Chamber: Disrespect others? Drowned in a pool of blood

4.2 Hall of Blackness: Those who commit suicide comes here.

4.3 Chamber of Saw: Lawyers and those engage in unfair practices, please come here to be sawed into half.

4.4 Chamber of Stone Mill: Bullies and Power Hungry evil persons.. come here to be crushed.

4.5 Chamber of Pounding: Still want to waste food? Will be forced feed by demons. Much like the French force feed ducks to become a delicacy like Foie gras.

4.6 Chamber of Dismemberment: Generally bad people get their body torn to pieces.

4.7 Chamber of Rock: Guilty of giving away a baby or killing babies? Please hold a heavy rock until crushed by it.

4.8 Chamber of Eternal Flames: Robbers, thieves, shoplifters, the corrupt will get perpetual sauna bath...

4.9 Ox Chamber: Abuse animals? Your turn to be tortured by animals.

5. By the way, King Yama's birthday is on 8th day of the 1st Lunar month.

[Cecil Lee]

Summary

The text describes the Chinese-Buddhist legend of Diyu (Naraka), an underground hell governed by King Yama, where sinners are eternally punished in various specialized chambers in the East and West sections according to the nature of their earthly sins.

+++

Key Takeaways

- Diyu (Naraka) is depicted as an underground maze of multiple levels and chambers where souls atone for sins after death.  
- Hell is divided into two main sections—East and West Chambers—each containing specific torture chambers.  
- The East Chambers punish sins like gossip, adultery, murder, sowing discord, theft, arson, and hypocrisy with corresponding bodily tortures (e.g., tongue extraction, knife hills, oil cauldrons).  
- The West Chambers address disrespect, suicide, unfair practices, bullying, food waste, infanticide, corruption, and animal abuse with punishments such as drowning in blood, sawing, crushing, dismemberment, burning, and torture by animals.  
- Punishments are portrayed as gruesome and perpetual, emphasizing moral retribution and deterrence.  
- King Yama is the supreme governor of this hell, and his birthday is said to fall on the 8th day of the 1st lunar month.

[Cecil Lee]

Some additional and details about Diyu and the Eighteen Levels of Hell

1. Origins and Religious Mixing

- Buddhist roots: The idea of Naraka (hell realms) comes from Indian Buddhism, where there are many hells (hot and cold) where beings suffer until their negative karma is exhausted.  
- Chinese adaptation: When Buddhism spread to China, these ideas mixed with:
  - Daoist underworld beliefs
  - Ancient ancestor veneration
  - Local ghost and spirit traditions

The result is Diyu, a very Chinese-style bureaucratic hell, with courts, judges, scribes, and guards.

- Numbers vary:  
  - Buddhist texts speak of 8 hot hells, 8 cold hells, plus many subsidiary hells.  
  - Chinese folk tradition often simplifies this into the popular notion of Eighteen Levels of Hell, but the exact number and type of hells differ by region and text.

2. The Ten Courts and the Bureaucracy of Hell

Besides the earlier focus on East and West chambers, another very influential model is the Ten Courts (or Ten Kings) of Hell:

- Ten Kings of Hell (Shi Dian Yanluo 十殿閻羅):
  - King Yama (Yanluo Wang) is often the fifth of ten kings, but in popular speech he’s treated as the main ruler.
  - Each king presides over a court or layer of Diyu, reviewing specific types of sins.

- A bureaucratic afterlife:
  - The dead are processed almost like in a government office:
    - Records are checked (book of life and death).
    - Witnesses or demons present evidence.
    - A judgment is passed.
    - The soul is sent to a corresponding hell chamber or to reincarnation.
  - This reflects the imperial Chinese legal system: the underworld is like a cosmic version of the imperial court and legal bureaucracy.

3. The Journey of the Soul Through Diyu

A typical folk narrative of what happens after death:

1. Capture and Escort  
   - Ghostly officials like Ox-Head and Horse-Face (Niu Tou Ma Mian 牛头马面) arrest the soul and bring it to Diyu.  
   - Other underworld agents include Black and White Impermanence (Heibai Wuchang 黑白无常), popular in temple art and folk stories.

2. Judgment by the Ten Kings  
   - The soul passes through multiple courts.  
   - In each court, specific sins are judged and corresponding punishments assigned.

3. Punishment (Not Always Truly Eternal)  
   - In strict Buddhist doctrine, hell is very long-lasting but not eternal. When karma is exhausted, the being eventually leaves.  
   - In folk storytelling, the language is often forever to emphasize fear and deterrence, even though doctrinally it’s closer to until the karma runs out.

4. Meng Po and the Soup of Forgetfulness  
   - At the end of the process, many stories say the soul reaches Naihe Bridge (奈何桥).  
   - Here, an old woman deity Meng Po (孟婆) gives the soul a bowl of forgetfulness soup.  
   - After drinking, the soul forgets its past lives and crosses the bridge to be reborn as a human, animal, hungry ghost, etc., depending on karma.

4. Moral Emphasis and Social Concerns

The sins stressed in Diyu legends tell you what a society fears most:

- Threats to social harmony:  
  - Gossip, sowing discord, adultery, bullying, disrespect of elders and authorities.
- Abuse of power and position:  
  - Corruption, unfair business practices, manipulation of law (hence lawyers being punished in some folk versions).
- Violation of basic human bonds:
  - Infanticide, abandonment, cruelty to parents, betrayal of trust.
- Attitudes toward life and resources:
  - Suicide (viewed as abandoning responsibilities and burdening others),
  - Food waste (serious in agrarian societies where famine was real),
  - Animal abuse (linked to compassion and karma).

The underworld thus functions as a mirror of social ethics: what gets punished most severely in Diyu is what most endangers family structure, social stability, and communal survival.

5. Important Texts and Visual Traditions

Several influential sources and art forms shaped popular ideas of Diyu:

- Jade Record (Yuli Chaojuan 玉历钞传) and similar underworld tracts:  
  - Popular religious booklets (often Qing or later) describing the Ten Courts and vivid hell scenes.  
  - Recited or distributed in temples as moral warnings.

- Hell Scrolls (地下牢狱图 / 地狱变相) and temple murals:
  - Found in many Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese temples.
  - Bright, graphic depictions of demons torturing sinners, often with captions specifying the sins.
  - Served as public visual sermons: anyone passing by could read the message even without literacy.

- Modern attractions and temples:
  - Places like Haw Par Villa in Singapore or Hell Temples in Taiwan and Thailand display large, graphic statues of Diyu scenes.
  - These continue the tradition of teaching morality through extreme imagery, now also mixed with tourism and popular culture.

6. Relationship to Karma and Rebirth

Diyu fits into a broader karmic cycle:

- Karma (ye 业): Actions (physical, verbal, mental) create imprints that ripen into future experiences.
- Hell is not eternal damnation in the strict Buddhist sense, but a karmic consequence:
  - The more severe and repeated the harm, the longer and more intense the hell experience.
- After suffering the results of negative karma, a being:
  - May be reborn as a human with heavy suffering,
  - Or as an animal,
  - Or as a hungry ghost,
  - Or, if they have accumulated good karma, in better realms.

Folk stories often simplify this into: do bad → go to hell; do good → go to heaven, but the underlying idea is a continual cycle shaped by one’s actions.

7. King Yama’s Indian Roots and Chinese Transformation

- Indian origin:  
  - Yama in early Indian thought is the god of death and the first mortal to die, who becomes lord of the departed.
- Chinese transformation:
  - Transliterated as Yanluo Wang (阎罗王).
  - Reimagined as a robed, official-like judge sitting behind a desk, surrounded by clerks and demons, much like a Chinese magistrate.
  - This visual is very different from Indian depictions and strongly reflects Chinese legal culture.

 

[Cecil Lee]

Diyu is not a single, fixed concept. Its layout, rulers, number of hells, and even the sins punished change depending on which text, time period, or region you look at. Here is a concise comparison:

1. Classical Buddhist Naraka vs. Chinese Diyu

- Indian Buddhist Naraka:
  - Many hells (hot and cold), usually 8 hot and 8 cold main hells with many subsidiary ones.
  - Yama is a judge of the dead, but not a Chinese-style official.
  - No elaborate bureaucracy of courts and clerks; it is more a system of karmic realms where beings suffer until their bad karma runs out.
  - Focus is doctrinal and cosmological, less on graphic moral storytelling.

- Sinicized Diyu:
  - Adopted Naraka but reshaped it to match Chinese imperial bureaucracy.
  - Diyu is organized like a government: courts, files, judges, scribes, guards, official titles.
  - Strong integration with ancestral beliefs and local ghost traditions.
  - Much more interested in concrete stories of specific sins and punishments.

2. Ten Courts of Hell vs. Eighteen Levels of Hell

Two of the most important Chinese models actually differ:

- Ten Courts (Ten Kings of Hell):
  - Based on works like the Scripture on the Ten Kings (Shiwang Jing).
  - The dead pass through a sequence of courts, each ruled by a different king (Yanluo is usually the fifth).
  - Time is organized: judgments every seven days, then at 100 days, one year, three years after death.
  - This model spread to Korea and Japan, where the Ten Kings also appear.

- Eighteen Levels of Hell:
  - A more folk-religious and later system, often seen in popular tracts like the Jade Record (Yuli Chaojuan) and in temple art.
  - Focuses on layers or “levels” of hell, each with a specific torture for a specific sin (tongue-pulling, mountain of knives, blood pool, etc.).
  - The exact list of 18 is not standardized:
    - Different tracts and regions list different hells and punishments.
    - The number 18 is symbolic and tidy, not strictly scriptural.
  - Often simplifies the Ten Courts into a straight downward journey of worsening punishments.

3. Daoist and Popular Religion Versions

- Daoist underworld:
  - Adds its own bureaucracy: City Gods (Chenghuang), Earth Gods (Tudi Gong), Ghost Officials.
  - Emphasizes registers of names, life span records, and the power of talismans and rituals to alter fate.
- Popular folk religion:
  - Ghost festivals, paper money burning, exorcistic opera performances.
  - Diyu becomes a moral theater where:
    - Filial piety is heavily emphasized.
    - Rituals can sometimes reduce a soul’s suffering.

4. Regional Variations within the Chinese Cultural Sphere

a) North China (historical heartland)

- Many temple murals show Diyu scenes, often linked to stories like “Mulian Rescues His Mother” (Mulian Jiumu).
- Emphasis on:
  - Filial piety and respect for imperial authority.
  - Punishments for treason, tax evasion, corruption, and disrespect of parents or ancestors.
- Imagery strongly resembles imperial courtrooms, with judges in official hats behind desks.

b) South China (Guangdong, Fujian) and Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia

- Strongly influenced by Cantonese and Hokkien folk culture.
- Local hell temples and shrines often show:
  - Very graphic and theatrical statues of punishments.
  - Specific focus on:
    - Business cheating and commercial fraud.
    - Swearing false oaths in temples.
- Famous example: Haw Par Villa in Singapore, with a full “Ten Courts of Hell” walk-through based on a Cantonese-style understanding of Diyu.

c) Taiwan

- Very rich and vivid Hell Temple tradition:
  - Full-scale walk-through “hell palaces” with Ten Courts or Eighteen Levels.
- Heavy influence of texts like the Jade Record:
  - Punishments spelled out in modern terms: drunk driving, gambling, abortion, fraud, disrespecting temples, etc.
- Often mixes Buddhist, Daoist, and folk elements:
  - King Yama and the Ten Kings.
  - City Gods and Earth Gods sharing underworld responsibilities.
  - Rituals to rescue or comfort ancestors in Diyu.

d) Hong Kong and Macau

- Cantonese opera, comics, and films frequently depict Diyu.
- Ten Courts nearly always present, with Yanluo Wang recognizable to most people.
- In some modern depictions, the courtrooms even resemble modern law courts (occasionally with subtle references to colonial legal culture).
- Sins connected to:
  - Gang activity.
  - Gambling.
  - Urban crime and corruption.

e) Singapore and Malaysia (Chinese communities)

- Reflect Southern Chinese roots, but adapted to local concerns.
- Hell depictions in temples and theme parks:
  - Emphasize public morality (respect for parents, honesty in trade).
  - Depict regional customs: offering joss paper, Hungry Ghost Festival.
- Surrounded by multicultural and often Muslim-majority societies, so some displays are more contained in temples and private spaces.

f) Vietnam

- Vietnamese equivalent often called Di Ngục (hell) under the rule of Diêm Vương (from Yanluo Wang).
- Influences:
  - Chinese Buddhism and Taoism.
  - indigenous Vietnamese beliefs and ancestor worship.
- Ten Courts and Eighteen Levels both appear in different contexts.
- Localized sins and motifs:
  - Disloyalty to family and nation.
  - Social injustice and abuse by officials.

g) Korea

- Underworld known as Jiok.
- Ten Kings model widely adopted:
  - Appears in paintings and Buddhist rites for the dead.
- Strong connection to ancestor rites:
  - The dead are judged but are still part of the family’s ritual world.
- Emphasis on:
  - Filial piety.
  - Social harmony and avoiding shame to the family.

h) Japan

- Hell is called Jigoku.
- Based heavily on Buddhist Naraka ideas, but also adopted the Ten Kings and King Enma (from Yanluo).
- Differences:
  - Greater focus on specific hells like the Mountain of Needles, Blood Pool Hell, etc.
  - Strong influence of Pure Land Buddhism:
    - Diyu/Jigoku contrasts with Amida Buddha’s Western Paradise.
- In many periods, hell art (jigoku-e) was extremely graphic, similar to Chinese hell scrolls but with Japanese aesthetics.

5. Differences in King Yama’s Role

- In some texts:
  - Yama is the sole ruler and ultimate judge of Diyu.
- In the Ten Kings model:
  - He is only one of ten, typically the fifth king, though still the most famous.
- In folk religion:
  - His power overlaps with City Gods, Earth Gods, and even ancestral spirits.
  - Sometimes there are regional underworld rulers, or even female judges in local tales.
- Across regions:
  - China: Yanluo Wang as a Chinese magistrate in robes and official hat.
  - Japan: Enma with a fearsome face, sometimes almost comical in popular media.
  - Korea and Vietnam: names and appearance adjusted to local language and art styles, but always a stern judge.

6. Differences in Moral Focus

Each version of Diyu mirrors the fears and values of its society:

- Imperial and classical texts:
  - Stress treason, rebellion, disrespect for emperors and officials, desecration of rituals, and grave social disorder.
- Late imperial popular tracts (like Jade Record):
  - Add:
    - Filial piety violations.
    - Sexual immorality.
    - Cheating in business.
    - Mistreating servants or tenants.
- Modern hell temples (Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong):
  - Update the sins:
    - Drunk driving, drug dealing, fraud, environmental damage, performing unsafe abortions, filming pornography, internet scams, etc.
- Across all:
  - Recurring big themes: filial piety, honesty, non-violence, respect for religious spaces, avoiding abuse of power.

7. Differences in How Long Hell Lasts and How One Leaves

- Buddhist doctrine:
  - Hell is not eternal. It is extremely long but ultimately finite: once bad karma is used up, the being is reborn.
- Chinese folk belief:
  - Often uses language like “forever” or “eternal suffering” to scare people straight.
  - At the same time, it allows:
    - Rituals by the living to shorten punishment.
    - Merit transfer from good deeds and sutra recitations to help ancestors.
- Some modern tellings:
  - Stress the idea of a “karmic prison term” rather than true eternity.

8. Textual Variants and Literary Depictions

Different texts present Diyu in different ways:

- Scripture on the Ten Kings:
  - More “official” Buddhist style, centered on ritual and timing of post-mortem judgments.
- Jade Record and similar tracts:
  - Detailed, graphic descriptions of Eighteen Levels; very moralizing and aimed at ordinary readers.
- Mulian Rescues His Mother:
  - Emphasizes filial piety and the power of Buddhist practice to save souls from Diyu.
- Journey to the West:
  - More playful; Sun Wukong invades the underworld, erases names from the Book of Life and Death, and makes fun of the system.
  - Shows Diyu as bureaucratic but also corruptible and fallible.