It turned out that the eighteen layers of hell were imported goods- a joke about the underworld

When it comes to the eighteenth layer of hell, you should know it. Otherwise some people would not have avoided the eighteenth floor. What many people don't know is that the eighteen-layer hell is not domestic, it is "imported".

From which country? Came in with the introduction of Buddhism in India. Before the introduction of Buddhism, did we have the main god in charge of the underworld? Definitely. This dates back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and there are documents documenting that the underworld at that time believed that the underworld was above the high mountains in the North Sea. Who is in charge? There are two gods: Yu Lei and Shen Di Ye. They rule over all the ghosts. In the Han Dynasty, they also entered thousands of households as door gods. It should be the earliest door god in China. Which ghost was naughty, he was caught by the two gods and fed to the tiger. Majestic, right? So at that time, there was nothing to do with Yama, and there was no eighteen-layer hell.

In the Warring States period, the underworld changed its master again, called "Tubo". The underworld has also moved from the high mountains of Hokkaido to the underground. Tubo looked hideous: tiger head, ox body. Holding a long gordon. I guess the ghosts are afraid to see it. At this time, there was still nothing to do with yama. Eighteen layers of hell is so what even Tuber doesn't know.

In the blink of an eye, it was the Han Dynasty. Presumably, there is also a retirement system in the underworld? At this time, the Pluto King became the King of Taishan Province. The underworld also moved to Dongyue Taishan. Taishan Fujun was quite capable, and established a complete set of administrative management systems according to the official model of the Han Dynasty, including "pavilion chief", "you", "prison official", "beggar", "collar", etc., which were consistent with the official positions of the Han Dynasty. At this time, the "Book of Life and Death" appeared for the first time. Before this, there was no chance that the book of life and death would catch the wrong person. After having a book of life and death, you can take the right seat, and if you catch the wrong one, you can correct it. At that time, there were prisons, but eighteen layers of hell had not yet appeared.

After Liang Qi, Buddhism first spread to China, and the eighteen-layer hell theory also entered. However, considering the influence of Taishan among the masses, the eighteen layers of hell in the Buddhist scriptures were translated as Taishan. With the prevalence of Buddhism, there are often more Yama kings and fewer Taishan kings. However, by the time of the Tang Dynasty, the Taishan Fujun and the Yama King were often enshrined among the masses. It can be seen that Taishan Fujun has a psychological position among the masses.

By the time of the fifth dynasty, the King of Yama had not seen the King of Taishan. Where did Taishan Fujun go? However, in later Buddhist scriptures, a Yama king was transformed into a ten-hall Yama king, and the Taishan Fujun became the Taishan king of the seventh temple, and he was demoted in disguise. "Yama" is transliterated from Sanskrit and originally meant "bondage." ”

With the Ten Heavenly Queens, the eighteen layers of hell that accompanied it naturally appeared. Before that, there was no such thing as "hell" in China, and there was no such thing as Yama. The King of Yama was an Indian, a man dressed in red, wearing a crown, riding a buffalo (this ride, too much, right?). Holding a rope in one hand and a stick in the other, he is a god of terror who can bring distress to the dead. It is very different from the Yama King who later appeared in the book. When he came to China, he was boycotted by many people, so he made it domestic. It was replaced by the people's favorite Bao Zheng (in the hearts of the people, it is a typical representative of the selflessness of the Grand Duke). Replace the Ten Heavenly Lords with Chinese. For example, Jiang Ziwen, the King of Qinguang in the First Hall, Li Wen, the King of Chujiang in the Second Hall, and Yu Jian, the Song Emperor of the Third Temple...

Many people also have a misconception that eighteen layers of hell are like building a house, there are as many as eighteen floors. Not really. Hell is not hierarchical, it is described in terms of time, degree of suffering, and size of region. It turned out to be all Sanskrit. For example, the first layer is called "Guangju Di", which translates to "Tongue Pulling Hell"; the eighteenth layer is called "Chen Mo", which translates to "Sword and Saw Hell"...

I feel that this imported eighteen-layer hell is not as good as our original underworld prison, and Yama is not as good as our original Taishan Fujun. After all, Taishan Fujun is our native fujun.