painting; 繪畫(Chinese); handscroll BM-1919-0101-0.80

Period:Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Production date:10thC
Materials:paper, 紙 (Chinese), ivory (knobs),
Technique:painted
Subjects:bodhisattva hell 菩薩 (Chinese) 地獄 (Chinese) 國王/王后 (Chinese)
Dimensions:Height: 27.80 centimetres Width: 2.40 metres (length)

Description:
Painted handscroll illustrating the apochryphal Ten Kings of Hell Sutra. Five Kings seated behind their desks, with various punishments shown. The Six Ways of Life and a Hell scene follow, and the standing figure of Kṣitigarbha completes the composition. Ink and colour on paper. Ivory knobs.
IMG


Comments:Zwalf 1985The Dunhuang handscrolls showing the Ten Kings of the Underworld appear late in the iconography of the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha. In this fragment five kings are each seated behind a table, attended by the recorders of a person’s good and evil deeds and by lictors and gaolers driving the souls before the court. Some souls wear wooden cangues and hand fetters; all have only a loincloth. The virtuous are in 10th-century costume; the men hold bundles of scrolls, the women small Buddha images in token of their meritorious deeds. Kṣitigarbha, dressed as a monk, appears at the end of the scroll, rescuing souls from hell.