Yanluo Wang

Yanluo Wang or Yan Wang is a Chinese deity and the ruler of Diyu, the underworld. The name Yanluo is a shortened Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit term Yamarāja. He is also the judge of the underworld and passes judgment on all the dead.

According to legend, he is often equated with Yama (Buddhism), but actually, Yanluo Wang has his own number of stories and long been worshiped in China. His personification is always male, and his minions include a judge who holds in his hands a brush and a book listing every soul and the allotted death date for every life. Bullhead and Horseface, the fearsome guardians of hell, bring the newly dead, one by one, before Yanluo for judgement. Men or women with merit will be rewarded good future lives, or even revival in their previous life. Men or women who committed misdeeds will be sentenced to torture and/or miserable future lives. Yanluo is not one particular god. There were said to be cases in which an honest mortal was rewarded the post of Yanluo.