6 replies to this topic

[yaoguai]

A lot of energy has gone into depicting the punishments of Diyu, from the Jade Calendar to Journey to the Underworld to Tiger Balm Gardens, and more. One thing I've noticed is that quite a few of the torturers seem to have a type, as though there are different species of demons. I don't just mean the Niútóumǎmiàn, either.

So my question is, what are they called?


A blue-skinned demon with horns and red tufts of hair. It wears a leopard-skin skirt like Japanese oni, and has a red scarf tied around its neck.


Another of the same kind, with more prominent teeth and a different weapon


A blue, scarf-wearing demon in the back right. Up front is a gray demon with a different skirt and long red hair. Left of center is a green demon with a blue scarf.


A gray demon in a tiger-skin skirt and a red scarf. A blue demon with a different kind of pants.


A snake-necked demon and one with whiskers


A green demon with a pointy head


A green demon with a pointy head, at a different temple, hundreds of miles away


A gray demon with long red hair, hundreds of miles away


A green demon with long white hair.

And on and on.

I get a very strong visual sense that these demons represent different types or categories of demon, but I've struck out at finding the names for them. Does anyone have any information?

Thanks in advance. I apologize for not often returning to a thread I've started and thanking you for your help, but I'm hoarding my thirty posts as carefully as I can.

[ghostexorcist]

A dark colored demon with red hair is a reoccurring creature in Buddhist lore. For instance, the earliest incarnation of Journey to the West, the 13th century Kozanji (高山寺) edition--called such because a copy of it was discovered in a Japanese Monastery of that name--has Sun Wukong facing a dark blue demon with red hair who is able of growing to huge proportions. The dark demons with white hair are probably based on the one I just mentioned. As for the knobby-headed demons, I am not too sure. They may be based on luohans who are usually depicted as having such heads.

Edit (7-17-12): The Kozanji version actually has Sun Wukong transform his monk's staff (he didn't have the iron cudgel at this point) into the giant demon to combat an enemy.

[李正龍]

Maybe those creatures were visually depicted from the myth of Yama Raja (King Yama) in India, and then modificated to be more Japonaiserie, or Chinoiserie. Since Buddhism and Hinduism have been regarding Yama Raja (one of six low heavenly-level) as god of "afterlife business".

[yaoguai]

Thanks guys! I have found the names of three kinds of hell-dwelling entities: Guǐzú (鬼卒, or ghost jailers), Luōshā (罗刹) demons, and Yèchā (夜叉) demons. Information on each is rare. I would love to learn more, does anyone know anything about them? Or if they correspond to the torturers in the Jade Calendar images?

I've read that male Luōshā are hideous and female Luōshā are beautiful, and that a Tibetan origin story says that the Tibetan people are descended from a mating between a monkey and a female Luōshā.

This is a fire-breathing Luōshā:



A female:



This image is from a book on Chinese opera costumes, advising how Guǐzú (鬼卒), or ghost jailers, should be costumed.



A Yèchā demon:

[ghostexorcist]

Thanks guys! I have found the names of three kinds of hell-dwelling entities: Guǐzú (鬼卒, or ghost jailers), Luōshā (罗刹) demons, and Yèchā (夜叉) demons. Information on each is rare. I would love to learn more, does anyone know anything about them? Or if they correspond to the torturers in the Jade Calendar images?

I've read that male Luōshā are hideous and female Luōshā are beautiful, and that a Tibetan origin story says that the Tibetan people are descended from a mating between a monkey and a female Luōshā.

Luosha is the transliteration of the Sanskrit word "Rakshasa." Yecha is that for "Yaksha." Both of these types of demons are carryovers from Hinduism. You should be able to find more information on them if you search for the sanskrit terms in a Chinese Buddhist context.

The story about the monkey and the raskshasa apparently comes from a 14th century book called the Gyalrab Salwai Melong (The Clear Mirror). The version I just read refers to him as "Bodhisattva-monkey." The Sutra of the Former Lives of the Buddha Simhacandra, which was translated into Chinese sometime in the fourth or fifth century, mentions a story about a monkey who accepts the Buddhist vows and later becomes a Buddha after several rounds of rebirths.This may have had some influence on the legend. Monkeys were used in Buddhism to represent the restless mind of man.

[ghostexorcist]

You might find this site useful. Apart from having some lovely hell scrolls, they have a bibliography on books on the subject:

http://academic.reed...olls/index.html

[yaoguai]

You might find this site useful. Apart from having some lovely hell scrolls, they have a bibliography on books on the subject:

http://academic.reed...olls/index.html

Holy cow! Thank you. This is an amazing site.