# Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Kings of Hells: Leaf 29

- Date: 1200s
- Medium: Album; ink on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Painting: 34 x 38.4 cm (13 3/8 x 15 1/8 in.)
- Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
- Credit line: John L. Severance Fund in honor of Dr. Ju-hsi Chou and Gift of various donors to the department of Asian Art (by exchange)
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2004.1.29)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/2004.1.29/2004.1.29_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This leaf belongs to the album’s second series of narratives, Ten Kings of Hells. It demonstrates a Chinese-Buddhist approach in which the netherworld is divided into ten realms, each ruled by one of these kings. This particular version portrays the king in a benevolent guise, though his identity remains unclear. He is draped in a robe and holds an ivory plaque. A vertical scroll hangs to his left, depicting in the lower two-thirds a rectangular architectural plan with buildings aligned in a symmetrical arrangement not unlike a Buddhist temple or a Confucian shrine. Above, the scene also features a building and could show a specific mountain. One of the Ten Kings is known as the King of Taishan (or Mt. Tai). This depiction would represent a unique treatment of the king, not shared with other renditions of the same figure elsewhere.