Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27 (1200s): Art, History and Details

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27 (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This leaf is part of a set depicting the Ten Kings of Hell. The theme transforms the Indian Buddhist view of judgment after death into a typical Chinese bureaucratic process. Before being permitted to transmigrate into the next life, a soul is tried by 10 different kings in a process that lasts three years. Each king is assisted by scribes and officials who report on the good and bad deeds upon which a verdict is given. In the foreground, demons conduct punishments. The inscription here refers to the 12 functionaries assisting the king.

Object facts

• Title: Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 27
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album; ink on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 34.1 x 38.4 cm (13 7/16 x 15 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2004.1.27

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund in honor of Dr. Ju-hsi Chou and Gift of various donors to the department of Asian Art (by exchange)

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wu, Tao-tzu, and F. R. Martin. Zeichnungen nach Wu tao-tze aus der götter- und sagenwelt Chinas. München: F. Bruckmann a.g, 1913.
• Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. Fine Chinese Ceramics, Paintings and Works of Art. 21 September 2000. Lot 204.
• Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.