The Hells, Part 2
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of fascicle 50 of the Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng (經律異相): "The Hells, Part 2" (地獄部下) — four entries, and the end of the compendium. The first two come from the Sūtra of the Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha and are built around a single idea: the wardens of hell do not seize the dying, they grant them their last wish. A man freezing to death is shown a fire-cart with jade maidens in it; a man burning is shown a cool tree in flower; a miser is shown someone burning money. The second entry runs that pattern eighteen times over, once for each of the sub-hells that ring Avīci, and each time ends with the same line — that afterward he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment. The third entry is a flat register of sixty-four hells with the deed behind each, most of them small and domestic. The fourth is the Great Perfection of Wisdom's account of the great hells, matched to social offenses: false weights, crooked judgments, deposits not returned, villages burned. The work closes at the bottom of Avīci, with no colophon.
Translation Method
This is the last of the fifty fascicles, and the second of the two on the hells. Where fascicle 49 gave registers and taxonomies, this one gives mechanism: what the dying person sees, why he goes willingly, and what the offense was. We have translated it in full, including the eighteen repetitions of entry 2 and the sixty-four items of entry 3, without condensing the repetition, because the repetition is how the text works.
Numbers are left in the source's own units. 億 is rendered koṭi rather than converted to a Western figure, since 五百億 and 九百億 and 八百萬億 are used for effect and not for arithmetic; 千萬 and 萬 are given as millions and myriads where the sense is a plain count. Yojanas and li are kept as they stand.
On names: Avīci, Yama, Jambudvīpa, rākṣasa, yakṣa, śramaṇa, brahmin, bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī, śrāmaṇera, śrāmaṇerī, śikṣamāṇā, upāsaka, upāsikā, poṣadha, sthūlātyaya, pratyekabuddha, arhat, kalpa, yojana, and vajra are given in their standard forms. The hell-names in entries 2, 3, and 4 are all Chinese translations rather than transliterations, and we translate them in turn — Reviving, Crushing Together, Wailing, Boiling Filth, Iron Cave, the Press — rather than supply Sanskrit equivalents the source does not have. The five kings at the end of entry 3, and the ox-headed Ābāng of entry 3's fifty-second hell, are kept in pinyin: they have no reliable Indic correspondence.
Two names in entry 3 sit on characters the received text has damaged: the thirty-first and the forty-fifth and forty-sixth hells are written with rare compound graphs, and the fiftieth with a graph that does not resolve. We translate by the sense the surrounding sentence supplies (Crushing, the Press, the Stunted) and flag the uncertainty here rather than in the text.
The eighteen sub-hells of entry 2 are set off in the translation column with their names in bold; the Chinese source column is left as one running block, as it is in the source, with no divisions inserted.
This fascicle is, from beginning to end, description of torture, and much of it is graphic: flaying, eye-gouging, molten copper poured down the throat, bodies split and revived to be split again. It is translated without softening or omission. The reading notes attend to how the text is built and what offense each hell is assigned, not to the imagery.
Fascicle Contents
- 1. The Avīci Hell and the Forms of Suffering Undergone There 阿鼻地獄受諸苦相一
- 2. The Eighteen Lesser Hells, Each Ringed by Eighteen More, Surrounding Avīci 十八小地獄各有十八獄圍繞阿鼻二
- 3. Sixty-Four Hells, with the Cause of Each and the Suffering It Shows 六十四地獄舉因示苦相三
- 4. The Five Great Hells and the Forms of Suffering Undergone in Them 五大地獄示受苦相四
1. The Avīci Hell and the Forms of Suffering Undergone There
The topography of Avīci — eight thousand yojanas square, four copper dogs at the corners, eighteen eight-headed wardens, iron pythons that roar like thunder — and then the deathbed of the patricide, of the man complete in the five heinous offenses, and of the one who broke the four grave prohibitions. In each case the wardens do not seize him: they show him what he wants, and he goes willingly. The fascicle closes with the eastern gate that opens at the end of the kalpa and the wardens waiting at the threshold.
阿鼻地獄者(梁言無遮。又言無間。又言猛火入心)縱廣正等八千由旬。七重鐵城七層鐵網。下有十八隔。周匝七重。皆是刀林。復有七重劍林。四角有四大銅狗。廣長四十由旬。眼如掣電。牙如劍樹。齒如刀山。舌如鐵刺。一切身毛皆然猛火。其烟臭惡。有十八獄卒。口如夜叉。六十四眼散迸鐵丸。狗牙上出高四由旬。牙端火流燒煎鐵車。輪輞出火。鋒刃劍戟燒阿鼻城赤如融銅。獄卒八頭六十角。角抄火然。火化成銅復成刀輪。相次在火焰間。滿阿鼻城。城內有七鐵幢。火涌如沸鐵流融迸涌出四門。上有十八釜。沸銅涌漫滿於城中。二隔間有八萬四千鐵蟒大蛇。吐毒火中身滿城內。其蛇哮吼如天震雷。雨大鐵丸五百。又五百億蟲。八萬四千嘴頭火流如雨而下。滿阿鼻城。此蟲若下猛火大熾照八萬四千由旬獄上。衝大海沃燋山下貫大海底渧如車軸。若有殺父害母罵辱六親。命終之時銅狗化十八車。狀如寶蓋。一切火焰化為玉女。罪人遙見心喜欲往。風刀解時寒急失聲。寧得好火安在車上然火自爆。即便命終。坐金車瞻玉女。皆捉鐵斧斬截其身。屈伸臂頃直落阿鼻。從上隔如旋火輪至於下隔。身遍隔內。銅狗大吼嚙骨唼髓。獄卒羅剎捉大斧截以叉叉頸令起遍體火焰滿阿鼻獄。閻羅王大聲告勅。癡人獄種。汝在世時。不孝父母邪慢無道。汝今生處名阿鼻獄。獄卒復從下隔更上上隔。經歷八萬四千隔挂身而過至鐵網際。一日一夜即閻浮提六十小劫。盡一大劫。作五逆罪。臨命終時。十八風刀如鐵火車解截其身。以熱逼故便作是言。得好色華清涼大樹於下遊戲不亦樂乎。作此念時八萬四千諸惡劍林。化作寶樹華果茂盛行列在前。大熱火焰化為蓮華。罪人疾於暴雨坐蓮華上。鐵嘴諸蟲從火華起穿骨入體躁動。一切劍枝。削於肉骨。無量刀林當上而下。火車鑪炭十八苦事一時來迎。此相現時陷墜地下。從下隔上身如華敷遍滿下隔下火熾然。至於上隔身滿其中。熱惱急故張眼吐舌。萬億融銅百千刀輪。從空中下頸入足出。一切苦事過於上說百千萬倍。具五逆者受罪五劫。復有眾生。犯四重禁虛食信施誹謗邪見不識因果。斷學般若毀十方佛。偷僧祇物婬妷無道。逼淨戒尼姊妹親慼。造眾惡事。此人罪報。臨命終時。風刀解身偃臥不定如被楚撻。其心荒越發狂癡想。見己室宅男女大小。一切皆是不淨之物。屎尿臭處盈流于外。獄卒羅剎以大鐵叉擎。阿鼻獄及諸刀林。化作寶樹及清涼池。火焰化作金葉蓮華諸鐵嘴蟲化為鳧雁。苦痛之聲猶如歌詠。罪人聞此吾當遊中。坐火蓮華。眾物競分。狗食其心。俄爾之間。身如鐵華滿十八隔。此等罪人經八萬四千大劫。復入東方十八隔中。如前受苦。南西北方亦復如是。謗方等經。具五逆罪。破壞僧祇。污比丘尼。斷諸善根。具眾罪者身滿阿鼻獄。四支復滿十八隔中。此阿鼻獄但燒如此獄種眾生。劫欲盡時東門即開。見東門外。清泉流水華果林樹一切俱現。是諸罪人從下隔見明火暫歇。從下隔起婉轉腹行。[打-丁+聿]身上走到上隔中。手攀刀輪。時虛空中雨熱鐵丸。走於東門既至門閫。獄卒羅剎手捉鐵叉逆刺其眼。鐵狗囓心悶絕而死。南西北門亦復如是。經歷半劫。
The Avīci hell (which in the language of Liang is Unbarred, also Unremitting, also Fierce Fire Entering the Heart) is eight thousand yojanas square, with seven walls of iron and seven layers of iron netting. Below it there are eighteen compartments, and round about seven layers, all of them forests of knives, and seven further layers of forests of swords.
At the four corners there are four great copper dogs, forty yojanas broad and long, their eyes like flashing lightning, their fangs like sword trees, their teeth like mountains of knives, their tongues like iron spikes, and all the hair of their bodies burning with fierce fire whose smoke is foul.
There are eighteen wardens with mouths like yakṣas, whose sixty-four eyes scatter iron pellets, whose dog-fangs stand out four yojanas high with fire streaming from the points, burning and boiling the iron carts; and fire comes from the rims of the wheels, and the points and blades of swords and halberds burn the Avīci city red as molten copper. The wardens have eight heads and sixty horns, and at the tips of the horns fire burns, and the fire turns into copper and then into wheels of knives, which follow one another among the flames and fill the Avīci city.
Within the city there are seven iron banners, and fire wells up like boiling water and molten iron flows and bursts out at the four gates; and above there are eighteen cauldrons, and boiling copper wells up and overflows and fills the city.
Between two compartments there are eighty-four thousand iron pythons and great serpents, which spit venom into the fire and whose bodies fill the city; and these serpents roar like the thunder of heaven and rain down five hundred great iron balls. And there are five hundred koṭis of insects with eighty-four thousand beaks from whose points fire streams down like rain and fills the Avīci city; and when these insects come down the fierce fire blazes up and lights the eighty-four thousand yojanas above the hell, and strikes the great sea and the Sinking-Scorched Mountain and pierces through to the bottom of the great sea in drops the size of a cart-axle.
If there is one who has killed his father or harmed his mother or reviled and insulted his six kinds of kin, then at the end of his life the copper dogs turn into eighteen carts that look like jewelled canopies, and all the flames turn into jade maidens. The offender sees them from afar and his heart is glad and he wishes to go; and when the wind-knives dissolve him, the cold is so bitter that he loses his voice: better to have a good fire and to sit in a cart and light a fire and warm myself. And at that his life ends.
He sits in the golden cart and looks at the jade maidens, and they all take iron axes and hack his body apart; and in the time it takes to bend and stretch an arm he falls straight into Avīci, and from the upper compartment to the lower, like a turning wheel of fire, his body filling the compartment. The copper dogs roar loudly and gnaw the bones and suck the marrow; and the rākṣasa wardens take great axes and cut him apart and lift him on forks by the neck to make him stand, and flames cover his whole body and fill the Avīci hell.
King Yama proclaims in a loud voice: fool, seed of hell — while you were in the world you were unfilial to your parents, arrogant in wrong and without principle. The place you are born in now is named the Avīci hell.
And the wardens take him from the lower compartment up to the upper compartment again, and he passes through eighty-four thousand compartments, hung up and carried through, to the edge of the iron netting. One day and one night here is sixty lesser kalpas of Jambudvīpa, and he completes a whole great kalpa.
One who commits the five heinous offenses: at the end of his life the eighteen wind-knives cut his body apart like an iron fire-cart; and being pressed by the heat he says: to get fine flowers of good color and a cool great tree and play beneath it — would that not be pleasant? And when he thinks this, eighty-four thousand evil sword-forests turn into jewel trees with flowers and fruit in abundance, set out in rows before him, and the great hot flames turn into lotus flowers; and the offender, faster than a driving rain, sits on the lotus flower.
Iron-beaked insects rise out of the fiery flower and bore through the bone and enter the body and move within it; and all the sword branches pare away his flesh and bone; and measureless forests of knives come down upon him from above; and fire-carts and braziers and the eighteen kinds of suffering come down from the air and enter at the neck and come out at the feet. All the sufferings here exceed those described above by a hundred thousand ten thousand times. One who is complete in the five heinous offenses receives punishment for five kalpas.
And there are beings who break the four grave prohibitions, who eat the gifts of the faithful for nothing, who slander and hold wrong views and do not know cause and effect, who cut off the study of wisdom and revile the buddhas of the ten directions, who steal the property of the saṅgha, who are lewd and without principle, who force nuns of pure precepts and their own sisters and kin, and who do every kind of evil. This is the reward of such a person’s offenses.
At the end of his life the wind-knives dissolve his body and he lies unable to be still, as though being beaten; and his mind runs wild and gives rise to mad and deluded imaginings, and he sees his own house and its people, great and small, and all of them are impure things, with excrement and urine and stench flowing out over everything.
The rākṣasa wardens hold up the Avīci hell and all its forests of knives on a great iron fork, and it turns into jewel trees and a cool pool; the flames turn into golden-leafed lotuses, and the iron-beaked insects into ducks and geese; and the sounds of bitter pain are like singing. The offender hears it: I shall go and wander in there — and sits on the fiery lotus, and the many creatures vie to divide him, and the dogs eat his heart; and in a moment his body is like an iron flower filling the eighteen compartments.
Such offenders pass eighty-four thousand great kalpas, and then enter the eighteen compartments to the east and suffer as before; and so likewise to the south, west, and north. Those who slander the vaipulya sūtras, who are complete in the five heinous offenses, who destroy the property of the saṅgha, who defile nuns, who cut off all roots of good, who are complete in all the offenses — their bodies fill the Avīci hell and their four limbs fill the eighteen compartments besides. This Avīci hell burns only such seed-of-hell beings as these.
When the kalpa is about to end, the eastern gate opens; and outside the eastern gate clear springs and flowing water and flowers and fruit and groves of trees all appear together. These offenders see the light from the lower compartment and the fire pauses for a while; and they rise from the lower compartment and writhe and crawl on their bellies and drag their bodies upward and go up to the upper compartment, and grasp the knife-wheels with their hands while hot iron balls rain out of the air.
They run to the eastern gate; and just as they reach the threshold, the rākṣasa wardens take iron forks and stab their eyes from in front, and the iron dogs bite their hearts, and they faint and die. And so likewise at the southern, western, and northern gates; and half a kalpa passes.
This is the third full description of Avīci in the compendium, after fascicle 49's two, and it is the only one that dwells on the deathbed rather than on the hell. The mechanism is consistent across all three of its cases: the dying man is cold, or burning, or in pain, and the wardens do not come for him — they show him a cart with jade maidens in it, or a cool tree in flower, or a pond with ducks on it, and he goes of his own accord. The Chinese is explicit that what he sees is made out of what will torment him: the copper dogs become the carts, the flames become the maidens, the sword forests become the flowering trees, the iron-beaked insects become the ducks and geese.
The interlinear gloss at the head — 梁言無遮。又言無間。又言猛火入心 — gives three Liang-period renderings of the name Avīci rather than one, and we keep all three. The last of them, Fierce Fire Entering the Heart, is not a translation of avīci at all; it is a gloss on the experience.
2. The Eighteen Lesser Hells, Each Ringed by Eighteen More, Surrounding Avīci
The eighteen sub-hells of Avīci given one after another, each on the same five-part pattern: the dimensions and the furniture; the offenses that lead there; the delusion the wardens conjure at the deathbed; the torment and its daily count of deaths; and the term of years, the rebirths that follow, and the one line of release — that afterward he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
阿鼻地獄。有十八小地獄。小地獄。各有十八寒地獄。十八黑闇地獄。十八小熱地獄。十八刀輪地獄。十八釰輪地獄。十八火車地獄。十八沸屎地獄。十八鑊湯地獄。十八灰河地獄。五百億釰林地獄。五百億刺林地獄。五百億銅柱地獄。五百億鐵璣地獄。五百億鐵輞地獄。十八鐵窟地獄。十八鐵丸地獄。十八尖石地獄。十八飲銅地獄。如是等眾多地獄。阿鼻地獄。死生寒氷中。寒氷獄死生黑闇處。八千萬歲目無所見。受大蟲身婉轉腹行。諸情闇塞為狐狼食之。後生畜生。五千萬身受鳥獸形。還生人中。六根不具貧窮下賤。經五百身後生餓鬼。後遇善知識發菩提心。十八寒地獄者。八方氷山。山十八隔。復有十八諸小氷山。寒氷山間如瓦蓮華。高十八由旬。上有氷輪。縱廣正等十二由旬。如天雨雹從空而下。劫奪抄盜剝脫凍殺眾生。此人罪報欲命終時。一切刀風化為熱火。罪人作念我今云何不臥氷上。作是念時。獄卒羅剎手執氷輪躡虛而至。罪人見已心便愛念。氣絕命終生氷山上。既生之後。十八氷山如以扇扇。一切寒氷從毛孔入。十八隔中遍滿一隔。剖裂擗拆如赤蓮華。氷輪上下遍覆其身。八方氷山一時俱合。更無餘辭但言阿羅。爾時罪人即彼作是念。我於何時當免寒氷生熱火中。爾時空中有鐵嘴鳥。吐火破氷啄腦。罪人即死。獄卒復以鐵叉打地㖑言活活。應聲即蘇。身火猛熾願得前氷以滅此火。獄卒復以氷輪迎接置與獄中。如是十八隔中無不經歷。此寒地獄壽命歲數。如四天王天日月八千萬歲。罪畢下生賤貧鄙陋。五十世中為人奴婢。衣不蔽形食不充口。此罪畢已。遇善知識發菩提心。黑闇地獄者。十八重黑山。十八重黑網。十八重鐵床。十八重鐵縵。一山高八萬四千由旬。一一縵亦厚八萬四千由旬。一一縵間十八重鐵圍山羅剎如林。此山陰闇。偷佛僧燈明。偷盜父母師長。謗說法者。亦毀世俗論義師等。不忌尊卑不知慚愧。以此罪故命欲終時。眼有電光睒迅不停。即作是念。我有何罪常見是火。即閉兩目不願欲見。命欲終時。獄卒羅剎擎大鐵床張大鐵輪。如大隊雲乘。空而至。無形有聲。罪人欲往命終。坐鐵床上落黑闇處。刀輪上下斬斷其身。有大鐵烏嘴距長利。從山飛下來摷罪人。痛急疾走求明不得。足下蒺梨穿骨徹髓。如是慞惶經五百萬億歲日月如前。彼人頭打諸黑闇山。腦流眼出。獄卒羅剎以鐵叉叉安眼眶。罪畢乃出。為貧窮人。眼目角睞盲冥無見。或被癩病人所驅逐。如是罪報經五百身。過是以後遇善知識發菩提心。十八小熱地獄者。如阿鼻獄。亦七重城七重鐵輞。無量諸惡以為莊嚴。以不從師教興惡逆心。不知恩養盜師害師。污師淨食坐師床坐捉師鉢盂藏去不淨。作種種惡毒藥飲師。若沙門婆羅門。作諸非法無有慚愧。剝像破塔劫法寶物。殺伯叔父母兄弟姊妹。命欲終時。十八獄卒各以鐵叉擎置一隔獄。如大寶蓋雨微細雨。雨渧如華熱惱入心。見雨清涼即作念言。願我得坐蔭蓋之下。涼雨灑我不亦樂耶。氣絕命終。如一瞬頃即坐劍林上。百億劍刃。刃皆出火燒刺其身。空中寶蓋化為火輪。從上而下直劈其頂。身體碎裂為數千段。上雨銅丸從毛孔入。獄卒羅剎以大鐵叉刺罪人眼。或以鐵箭貫射其心悶絕而死。須臾還活坐劍床上。旋嵐猛風吹墮地獄。時閻羅王告言。獄種汝作眾惡。殺師謗師。汝今生處名拔舌阿鼻。汝在此獄當經三劫。作是語已即滅不現。刀輪地獄者。四面刀山。於眾山間積刀如輪。有八百萬億極大刀輪。隨次而下猶如雨渧。以樂苦惱他殺害眾生。命終之時。患逆氣病心堅如石。即作是願。得一利刀削此諸患不亦快乎。是時獄卒頂戴刀輪翳令不現。至罪人所卑言遜辭。我有利刀能割重病。罪人歡喜即自念言。唯此為快。氣絕命終生刀輪上。如醉象走墮刀山間。是時四山一時俱合。四種刀山割切其身。不自勝持悶絕而死。獄卒羅剎驅蹙罪人。令登刀山來至山頂。刀傷足下乃至于心。畏獄卒故匍匐而上。既至山頂。獄卒手執一切樹揲。未死之間鐵狗嚙心楚毒百端。鐵蟲唼食肉皆都盡。尋復唱活。脚著鐵輪從空而下。一日一夜六十億生六十億死。如是眾多如四天王壽八千萬歲。罪畢乃出墮在畜生。五百世中有供眾口。復五百世受卑賤形。後遇善知識發菩提心。劍輪地獄者。縱廣正等五十由旬。滿中劍樹其樹多少。如稻麻竹葦。一一劍樹高四十由旬。八萬四千劍輪為葉。八萬四千劍輪為華。八萬四千劍輪為果。八萬四千沸銅為枝。以樂殺無厭。如此罪人臨命終時。遇大熱病即作念言。我今身體時熱時寒。舉身堅強猶如鐵碪。即作願言。得金剛劍割却此患樂不可言。是時獄卒即自化身。如己父母親友之形。在其人前而告之言。我有祕法如卿所念當用相遺。罪人云急急欲得。氣絕命終如馬奔走生劍華中。無量劍刀削骨破肉碎落如空。復有鐵烏。從樹上下挑眼啄耳。有大羅剎。手捉鐵斧破頭出腦。鐵狗來舐死已唱活。驅令上樹。未至樹端身碎如塵。一日一夜殺身如塵不可稱數。殺人罪故受如此殃經八萬億歲生畜生中。身常負重死復剝皮。經五百世還生人中。貧窮短命多病消瘦。過是已後遇善知識發菩提心。火車地獄者。一一銅鑊。縱廣正等四十由旬。滿中火。下有十二輪。上有九千四火輪。自有眾生為佛弟子。及事梵天九十六種。及在家者誑惑邪命諂曲作惡。如此罪人欲命終時。風大先動身冷如氷。即作是念。何時當得大猛火聚。入中坐者永除冷病。作是念已。獄卒羅剎化作火車如金蓮華。獄卒在上如童男像。手執白拂鼓舞而至。罪人愛著。若坐此上快不可言。氣絕命終載火車上。支節火然身體燋散。獄卒唱活應聲還活。火車轢身凡十八反碎身如塵。天雨沸銅遍灑身體即便還活。如是往反上至湯際下墮鑊中。火車所轢一日一夜九十億死九十億生。此人罪畢生貧賤家為人所使。繫屬於他不得自在。償利養畢久乃得脫。由前出家善心功德。遇善知識為其說法。心開意解成阿羅漢。沸屎地獄者。八十由旬十八鐵城。一一鐵城有十八隔。一一隔中四壁皆有百億萬劍樹。地如刀刃。刃厚三尺。於其刃上百千蒺梨不可稱計。一一蒺梨及劍樹間。生諸鐵蟲其數無量。一一鐵蟲有百千頭。一一頭有百千嘴。嘴頭皆有百千蚖蟲。此諸蚖蟲口吐熱屎。沸如融銅滿鐵郭內。上有鐵網鐵烏。以破八戒齋。污沙彌尼式叉摩尼。污比丘戒比丘尼戒。污優婆塞戒優婆夷戒。如是七眾及餘一切。污僧淨飯污父母食。偷竊先噉不淨手捉。及僧知事以自恃故污僧淨食。四部弟子以不淨身坐僧祇床。犯偷蘭遮久不懺悔。虛食僧食坐僧眾中與僧布薩。如是眾多無量不淨惡業罪人。臨命終時舉身皆香。如麝香子不可堪處。即作是念。當於何處不聞此香。獄卒化身猶如畫瓶中盛糞穢。至罪人所以手摩觸。令彼罪人心生愛著。氣絕命終墮沸屎中。身體糜爛眾蟲唼食削骨徹髓。以渴逼故飲熱沸屎。蚖蟲蛆蟲唼其舌根。一日一夜九十億生九十億死。罪畢乃出生貧賤家不得自在。設生世時恒值惡王屬邪見主。種種惡事逼切其身。癭瘇惡創以為衣服。宿世聞法善因緣故。遇善知識出家學道成阿羅漢。十八鑊湯地獄者。有十八鑊。縱廣正等各四十由旬。七重鐵網滿中沸鐵。五百羅剎鼓大石炭。燒其銅鑊焰焰相次。經六十日火不可滅。閻浮提日滿十二萬歲。鑊湯上涌化成火輪。還入鑊中。以毀佛禁戒殺生祠祀。為噉肉故焚燒山野傷害眾生。生噉眾生以火焚燒。如此罪人命欲終時。身心煩悶失大小便不自禁制。或熱如湯或冷如氷。即作是念。得大溫水入中沐浴不亦樂乎。獄卒羅剎化作僮僕。手擎湯盆至罪人所。心生愛樂。氣絕命終生鑊湯中。速疾消爛唯餘骨在。鐵叉掠出鐵狗嗗之。嘔吐在地尋復還活。獄卒驅蹙還令入鑊。鐵鑊熱故攀劍樹上。骨肉斷壞落鑊湯中。一日一夜恒沙死生。罪畢生為猪羊鷄狗。短命之處無不經歷。如是受身八千萬歲。命終之後還生人中。受二種報。一者多病。二者短命。過算數劫遇善知識。受持五戒行六波羅蜜。灰河地獄者。長二百由旬。廣十二由旬。下有利刀岸上劍樹。滿中猛火廣十二丈。復有融灰以覆火上。厚四十丈。以偷盜父母師長善友兄弟姊妹。如是癡人無有慚愧。不識恩養不從師教。此人罪報命欲終時。氣滿心腹喘息不續。即作是念。我心如泥氣滿胸中。得一微火爆我身者不亦快乎。獄卒應念化作妻子。手擎火鑪微灰覆上。至罪人所。罪人歡喜。氣絕命終生灰河中。諸劍樹間有一羅剎。手執利劍欲來傷害是人恐怖走入灰河。舉足下足刀傷其脚。劍樹雨刀從毛孔入。羅剎以叉叉出其心。躄地悶死尋復還活。一日一夜五百億生五百億死。飢渴逼故張口欲食。劍樹雨刀從舌頭入。擗腹裂胸悶絕而死。由前世聞法僧名故。罪畢之後得生人中。貧窮下賤。覺世非常出家學道。時世無佛成辟支佛。世若有佛成阿羅漢。劍林地獄者。八千由旬滿中劍樹。有熱鐵丸以為其果。樹高二十四由旬。以不孝父母不敬師長。作惡口業無慈愛心刀杖加人。臨欲終時心如糊膠處處生著。即作此念。我心縛著觸事不捨。耽酒嗜色雖遇苦患心猶不息。得一利刀以割截此愛。獄卒應聲化為侍者。執鏡語言。汝心多著可觀此鏡。見利劍像。以即作是念。我體羸弱以不堪欲事。得此利劍。割斷我心不亦快乎。作此念時氣絕命終受餓鬼身。諸劍樹間化生鐵丸。從頂入口出腸胃燋爛。獄卒打撲驅令上樹。鐵[口*(隹/乃)]蟲噉以怖上樹。如是展轉悉經劍林。一日一夜八萬生死。罪畢之後生飢饉世及疾病劫。為人卑賤口氣恒臭人所惡見。後遇善知識發菩提心。刺林地獄者。八千由旬滿中鐵刺。一一刺端有十二劍。樹上復有大熱鐵鉤。以惡口兩舌綺語不義語。調戲無節誑說是非。說經典過毀論議師。如此罪報命欲終時咽燥舌乾。即作此念。得一利刺刺頸出血。令眾脈間流注眾水不亦快乎。獄卒羅剎化作父母手執明珠。珠頭生刺持用擬口如水欲渧。罪人歡喜氣絕命終。如雷電頃生刺林間。獄卒羅剎手執鐵鉤拔舌令出。八千鐵牛有大鐵犁耕破其舌。一日一夜六百生死。過是已後得生人中。肩狹面皺語言[口*騫]吃。如此罪人體生諸瘡。膿血盈流經五百世人所惡見。過是已後雖有言說人不信受。遇善知識發菩提心。銅柱地獄者。有一銅柱林如火山。高六百由旬。下有猛火火上鐵床上有刀輪。間有鐵[口*(隹/乃)]蟲鐵口烏。以貪惑滋多染愛不淨。非處非時行不淨業。設有比丘尼婆羅門等諸梵行者。若非時於非處犯不淨法。乃至一切犯邪行者。如此罪人臨命終時。舉身反強振掉不定。即作是念。得一堅大銅鐵柱者。縛此身體令不動搖。獄卒應時化作僮僕。手執鐵杖至罪人所。白言長者。汝今身強餘物皆弱可捉此杖。心即歡喜氣絕命終。如挊杖頃生銅柱頭。猛火焰熾焚燒其身。驚怖下視見鐵床上。有端正女。若是女人見端正男。心生愛著從銅柱上下投于地。銅柱貫身鐵網絡頸鐵[口*(隹/乃)]諸蟲唼食其軀。落鐵床上。男女俱時六根火起。有鐵[口*(隹/乃)]蟲從眼而入從男女根出。若污戒者別有九億諸小蟲輩。如[虫*巢]蛆蟲有十二[口*(隹/乃)]。[口*(隹/乃)]頭出火唼食其體。一日一夜九百億生九百億死。出生鳩鴿身經五百世。復生龍中經五百身。後生人中無根二根。及不定根黃門之身經五百世。設得為人。妻不貞良子不慈孝奴婢不從。過是已後遇善知識發菩提心。鐵機地獄者有一鐵床。縱廣正等四百由旬。上安諸[撼-咸+巳]。[撼-咸+巳]間皆有萬億鐵弩。鐵弩鑊頭百億鋒刃。以為貪欲故不孝父母。不敬師長。不從善教殺害眾生。此人命終身體戰動六竅汁流。見自己床如兜羅綿。得堅冷處臥不亦快耶。獄卒羅剎。以叉擎床銷火毾㲪至罪人所。歡喜欲臥。氣絕命終生鐵機上。萬億鐵[撼-咸+巳]關從下動鐵[撼-咸+巳]昂無量。鐵弩同時皆張二鐵。箭射罪人心。一日一夜六百億生死。後生畜生中經五百世。還生人間。貧窮下賤為人所使。多墮刑獄恒受鞭撻。後遇善知識發菩提心。鐵網地獄者。八十九重諸鐵羅網。一一網間百億鐵針。一一鐵針施五關[撼-咸+巳]。以邪心諂曲妖媚惑人。心懷讒賊晝夜惡念。臨命終時身體搔痒。即作此念。得一束針攙刺不亦快乎。作是念時獄卒化為良醫。手執利針唱言。治病。罪人心喜氣絕命終生鐵網間。[打-丁+聿]身下過眾[撼-咸+巳]皆動。無量諸針射入毛孔。如是婉轉諸鐵網間。如剎那頃死生。罪畢乃出生於邊地無佛法處。亦不聞說世間善語何況正法。雖生人中三惡道攝。後遇善知識雖得聞法心不解了。鐵窟地獄者。餓鬼道中最上苦法。有一鐵山。縱廣正等二十五由旬。山上復有五百萬億大熱鐵丸。一一鐵丸團圓正等十三由旬。山間復有百千刀劍。是時彼山東開小孔。如摩伽陀升但出黑煙。以慳貪縛著心如金剛。但樂求索無有厭足。父母妻子悉不給與。師長教授視如糞穢。奴婢親友不施衣食。如是慳人不慮無常。護惜財物猶如眼目。命欲終時諸情閉塞。口噤不語心中默念。我死之後是諸惡人。食我財物如噉鐵丸。處我窟宅如處闇室。作是念已。獄卒化為慳人。多收財物以火焚之。罪人心喜氣絕命終生火山上。猶如融銅鑄鐵窟中。劍蟲刀蟲唼食其軀。煙熏其眼不見火焰。東西馳走頭打鐵山。鐵丸從頂徹足。一念頃死生。罪畢乃出生餓鬼中。其身長大數十由旬。咽如針筒腹如大山。東西求食融銅灌咽。經八千歲。生食膿唾血鬼中。復生廁神猪狗等中。罪畢乃生貧窮卑賤無衣食處。遇善知識發菩提心。鐵丸地獄者。八十由旬滿中鐵城。八十八隔。一一隔中有五刀山。持用覆上。下有十八大惡鐵蛇。皆吐鐵劍劍頭火然。以毀辱布施言施無報。勸人藏積。向國王大臣沙門婆羅門及一切眾。說施無因亦無果報。此人臨終頸強脈縮。迴轉不語不喜見人。低視而臥心中但念。我積財寶。得與我俱快不可言。獄卒化作其妻捉熱鐵丸。化作寶器在其人前。語言。我隨汝死婉轉相著終不相離。氣絕命終生鐵城中東西馳走。鐵蛇出毒纏繞其身節頭火然。即作是念。願天愛我降注甘雨。應念即雨大熱鐵丸項入足出。罪畢乃為貧窮孤獨喑啞之人。歲數如鐵窟說。遇善知識發菩提心。尖石地獄者。有二十五石山。一一石山有八水池。一一水池有五毒龍。比丘比丘尼。沙彌沙彌尼。式叉摩尼。優婆塞優婆夷。九十五種梵志等法。或犯輕戒。久不懺悔心無慚愧。命欲終時。心下氣滿腹脹如鼓。飲食噎吐水漿不下。即作是念。得一尖石塞我咽喉不亦快乎。是時獄卒化作良醫。拗捉尖石作大藥丸著其口中。告言閉口。心生歡喜。氣絕命終生石山間。無量尖石從背入胸出。獄卒復以鐵叉叉口以石內中。一日一夜六十億生。此是生報。從此命終墮黑繩地獄。黑繩地獄者。八百鐵鎖八百鐵山。竪大鐵幢兩頭繫鎖。獄卒馳踧令貪鐵繩上走。不勝下落墮鑊湯中。馳起渴急飲鐵吞石而走。一日一夜經歷是苦凡十萬遍。罪畢生世為人僮僕。遇善知識為說實法。得阿羅漢。飲銅地獄者。千二百種雜色銅車。一銅車上六千銅丸。以慳貪嫉妬邪見惡說。不施父母妻子眷屬及與一切。心生慳嫉見他得利如箭入心。如是罪人欲命終時。多病消瘦昏言囈語。是時獄卒化以銅車載果至罪人所。得已歡喜。即作念言。得此美果甚適我願。氣絕命終生銅車上。不久即往生銅山間。銅車轉頸。獄卒以鉗挓口飲以烊銅。迷悶躄地唱言飢飢。尋時獄卒擘口令開。以銅鐵丸置其口中。吞十八丸。節節火然東西馳走。經於七日爾乃命終。獄卒唱言。汝前身時。諛諂邪見慳貪嫉妬。以是因緣受鐵丸報。或曾出家毀犯輕戒。久不悔過虛食信施。以此因緣食諸鐵丸。此人罪報億千萬歲不識水穀。受罪既畢還生人中。五百世中言語[口*騫]吃不自辯了。以宿習故食後噉土塊。過是以後遇善知識發菩提心(出觀佛三昧法經第五卷)。
The Avīci hell has eighteen lesser hells, and each lesser hell has: eighteen cold hells, eighteen dark hells, eighteen lesser hot hells, eighteen knife-wheel hells, eighteen sword-wheel hells, eighteen fire-cart hells, eighteen boiling-filth hells, eighteen cauldron hells, eighteen ash-river hells, five hundred koṭis of sword-forest hells, five hundred koṭis of thorn-forest hells, five hundred koṭis of copper-pillar hells, five hundred koṭis of iron-trigger hells, five hundred koṭis of iron-rim hells, eighteen iron-cave hells, eighteen iron-ball hells, eighteen sharp-stone hells, eighteen molten-copper-drinking hells — and a great many more hells of this kind.
Dying in the Avīci hell, one is born in the cold ice; dying in the cold-ice hell, one is born in the place of darkness, where for eighty million years the eyes see nothing. One takes the body of a great worm, writhing and crawling on its belly, all its faculties blocked in darkness, and is eaten by foxes and wolves. Afterward one is born among animals, taking the shapes of birds and beasts for fifty million bodies. Returning to birth among humans, the six faculties are incomplete and one is poor and lowly; and after five hundred bodies one is born a hungry ghost. Afterward one meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The eighteen cold hells. On the eight sides are mountains of ice, each mountain with eighteen compartments, and there are eighteen further lesser ice mountains besides. Between the cold ice mountains are things like tiled lotus flowers, eighteen yojanas high, and above them an ice-wheel, twelve yojanas square, which comes down out of the air like hail falling from the sky. Those who robbed and plundered, who stripped people bare and froze them to death — this is the recompense of their offense. When such a one is about to die, all the knife-winds turn into hot fire, and he thinks: why should I not now lie down upon ice? As he thinks it, the rākṣasa wardens come treading the air with an ice-wheel in their hands; and seeing it the offender loves it in his heart, and his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born upon the ice mountain.
Once he is born there, the eighteen ice mountains are as though worked with a fan, and all the cold ice enters through his pores and fills one whole compartment of the eighteen. He is split and cracked open like a red lotus flower; the ice-wheel covers his body above and below; and the eight mountains of ice close upon him all at once. He has no other word left but ala. Then the offender thinks: when shall I be free of the cold ice and born in hot fire? At that there is an iron-beaked bird in the air that spits fire, breaks the ice, and pecks his brain, and the offender dies at once. The wardens strike the ground with an iron fork and shout, Live! Live! — and at the sound he revives. His body blazes with fire and he longs for the ice of before to put the fire out, and the wardens fetch the ice-wheel again and set him back in the hell. So he passes through all eighteen compartments and misses none.
The lifespan of this cold hell is eighty million years by the sun and moon of the heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings. His offense finished, he comes down to birth poor, lowly, and mean, and for fifty lives is a slave among humans, his clothing not covering his body and his food not filling his mouth. This offense finished, he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The dark hell. There are eighteen layers of black mountains, eighteen layers of black netting, eighteen layers of iron couches, eighteen layers of iron curtains. Each mountain is eighty-four thousand yojanas high, and each curtain likewise eighty-four thousand yojanas thick; and between the curtains are eighteen layers of Iron Ring Mountains where rākṣasas stand thick as a forest. These mountains are sunk in gloom. Those who steal the lamplight of the Buddha and the Saṅgha; who steal from parents, teachers, and elders; who slander preachers of the Dharma, and revile the debating masters of the world besides; who observe no distinction of high and low and know no shame — for this offense, when such a one is about to die, there is lightning in his eyes, flashing and never stopping, and he thinks: what offense have I, that I see this fire without ceasing? And he shuts both eyes, wishing not to see it.
As his life is about to end, the rākṣasa wardens lift up a great iron couch and spread out a great iron wheel and ride toward him through the air like a great mass of cloud, formless and yet sounding. The offender wishes to go with them, and his life ends. Seated on the iron couch he falls into the place of darkness, and knife-wheels above and below cut his body apart. Great iron crows with long sharp beaks and talons fly down from the mountains and seize him; and in the sharpness of his pain he runs seeking light and cannot find it, and caltrops under his feet pierce the bone through to the marrow. In such terror he passes five hundred myriads of koṭis of years by the sun and moon as before. That man beats his head against the dark mountains until his brains run out and his eyes fall from their sockets, and the rākṣasa wardens with iron forks set them back in the sockets again.
His offense finished, he comes out to be a poor man with squinting eyes, blind and seeing nothing, or one driven off by lepers; and this recompense of offense runs through five hundred bodies. After that he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The eighteen lesser hot hells. They are like the Avīci hell — likewise seven walls and seven iron rims, adorned with measureless evils. Those who do not follow their teacher’s instruction but raise a mind of evil rebellion; who do not acknowledge the kindness that reared them, and rob their teacher and do their teacher harm; who defile their teacher’s pure food, sit on their teacher’s seat, take up their teacher’s bowl and hide it away unclean; who work every kind of evil, and give their teacher poison to drink; and śramaṇas and brahmins who act contrary to the Dharma and have no shame; who strip images and break stūpas and plunder the treasures of the Dharma; who kill uncles, parents, brothers, and sisters —
When such a one is about to die, eighteen wardens each with an iron fork lift him up and set him in one compartment of the hell. It is like a great jewelled canopy raining a fine rain, whose drops are like flowers, and the burning distress of it enters his heart; but seeing the cool rain he thinks: may I be allowed to sit beneath that shading canopy and let the cool rain sprinkle me — would that not be pleasant? And his breath fails and his life ends. In the space of a blink he is sitting on the sword forest, and a hundred koṭis of sword blades all give out fire and burn and stab his body; and the jewelled canopy in the air turns into a wheel of fire and comes down from above and splits his crown straight open, and his body is broken into several thousand pieces. From above it rains copper balls that enter through his pores; and the rākṣasa wardens with a great iron fork stab the offender’s eyes, or shoot an iron arrow clean through his heart, and he faints and dies; and in a moment he revives and is seated on the sword couch, and the whirlwind blows him down into the hell.
Then King Yama tells him: Seed of hell, you have done many evils — you killed your teacher and slandered your teacher. The place of your birth is now named the Tongue-Pulling Avīci, and in this hell you shall pass three kalpas. Having said this he vanishes and is seen no more.
The knife-wheel hell. On four sides are mountains of knives, and among the mountains knives are heaped up like wheels, and there are eight hundred myriads of koṭis of exceedingly great knife-wheels that come down in turn like raindrops. Those who took pleasure in distressing others and in killing living beings — when their lives end they suffer a disease of the breath rising up, and the heart hardens like a stone; and they make this wish: to get one sharp knife and cut away these troubles — would that not be a relief? Then the wardens set knife-wheels on their heads and screen them so they are not seen, and come to the offender speaking humbly and softly: I have a sharp knife that can cut out a grave illness. The offender is delighted and thinks: this alone is relief. And his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born upon the knife-wheels, and like a drunken elephant running he falls among the mountains of knives.
Then the four mountains close all at once, and the four kinds of knife-mountain cut and slice his body, and he cannot bear it and faints and dies. The rākṣasa wardens drive and press him to climb the mountain of knives until he reaches the summit, and the knives wound him from the soles of his feet up to his heart; and for fear of the wardens he crawls up on his belly. Having reached the summit, the wardens take up every kind of switch of the trees; and before he has died, iron dogs gnaw his heart with a hundred kinds of bitter pain, and iron insects feed on him until the flesh is entirely gone — and presently they shout for him to live. With iron wheels on his feet he comes down out of the air; and in one day and night he is born sixty koṭi times and dies sixty koṭi times. So it goes for as long as the lifespan of the Four Heavenly Kings, eighty million years. His offense finished, he comes out and falls among the animals, and for five hundred lives supplies the mouths of others, and for five hundred lives more receives a base form. Afterward he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The sword-wheel hell. It is fifty yojanas square, filled with sword-trees as many as stalks of rice, hemp, bamboo, and reeds. Each sword-tree is forty yojanas high, with eighty-four thousand sword-wheels for its leaves, eighty-four thousand sword-wheels for its flowers, eighty-four thousand sword-wheels for its fruit, and eighty-four thousand streams of boiling copper for its branches. Those who took insatiable pleasure in killing — when such an offender comes to the end of his life he meets a great fever and thinks: my body is now hot, now cold, and the whole of it is rigid as an iron anvil. And he makes this wish: to get a vajra sword and cut this trouble away would be joy beyond words. Then the wardens transform themselves into the shapes of his own parents and dear friends, and standing before him say: I have a secret art, just as you were wishing, and I shall give it to you. The offender cries, Quickly, quickly, I want it! And his breath fails and his life ends, and like a galloping horse he is born among the sword-flowers.
Measureless sword blades pare his bones and break his flesh, which crumbles and falls away into emptiness. Iron crows come down from the trees to gouge his eyes and peck his ears; a great rākṣasa takes an iron axe and splits his head and lets out his brains; iron dogs come to lick him, and when he is dead they shout, Live! — and drive him to climb the tree; and before he reaches the top his body is shattered to dust. In one day and one night the bodies killed are like dust beyond counting. Because of the offense of killing men he receives such calamity for eighty thousand koṭi years, and is then born among the animals, always bearing burdens and skinned when he dies. After five hundred lives he is born again among humans, poor, short-lived, sickly, and wasted. After that he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The fire-cart hell. Each copper cauldron is forty yojanas square and full of fire; below it are twelve wheels, and above it nine thousand and four fire-wheels. There are beings who are disciples of the Buddha, and those who serve Brahmā and the ninety-six sects, and householders as well, who deceive and delude others, live by wrong livelihood, are fawning and crooked, and do evil. When such an offender is about to die, the wind element stirs first and his body grows cold as ice, and he thinks: when shall I get a great mass of fierce fire, to sit in it and be rid of this cold disease forever? At that thought the rākṣasa wardens make themselves into a fire-cart like a golden lotus flower, with a warden upon it in the form of a young boy, holding a white whisk and coming with drumming and dancing. The offender is taken with love for it: to sit up there would be joy beyond words. His breath fails and his life ends, and he is loaded upon the fire-cart.
His limbs take fire and his body is scorched and scattered; the warden shouts, Live! and at the sound he lives again. The fire-cart runs over him eighteen times in all and grinds his body to dust; the sky rains boiling copper and sprinkles it over his body, and at once he lives again. So he goes back and forth, rising to the surface of the boiling liquid and sinking again into the cauldron. Run over by the fire-cart, in one day and night he dies ninety koṭi times and is born ninety koṭi times. This man’s offense finished, he is born into a poor and mean family, ordered about by others, bound to another and never his own master; and only when he has paid back all he took in offerings is he at last released. Because of the merit of the good mind with which he once left the household life, he meets a good friend who preaches the Dharma to him; his mind opens, his understanding is freed, and he attains arhatship.
The boiling-filth hell. It is eighty yojanas across, with eighteen iron cities; each iron city has eighteen compartments; and in each compartment the four walls all have a hundred koṭis of myriads of sword-trees. The ground is like knife blades, the blades three feet thick, and upon those blades are hundreds of thousands of caltrops beyond reckoning. Between every caltrop and sword-tree grow iron worms measureless in number; each iron worm has a hundred thousand heads; each head a hundred thousand beaks; and at the tip of each beak are a hundred thousand vipers. These vipers vomit hot dung, boiling like molten copper, which fills the iron enclosure; and above are iron nets and iron crows.
Those who break the eight-precept fast; who defile śrāmaṇerīs and śikṣamāṇās; who defile the bhikṣu precepts and the bhikṣuṇī precepts; who defile the upāsaka precepts and the upāsikā precepts — the seven assemblies thus and all others besides; who defile the Saṅgha’s pure food and their parents’ food; who steal and eat first and handle food with unclean hands; and Saṅgha officers who, presuming on their office, defile the Saṅgha’s pure food; the four kinds of disciple who sit with unclean bodies on the couches of the Saṅgha; who commit a sthūlātyaya offense and long fail to confess it; who consume the Saṅgha’s food falsely and sit among the Saṅgha keeping the poṣadha with them — offenders of this sort, of measureless unclean and evil deeds, when they come to die find their whole body fragrant, like a grain of musk, and the place unendurable; and they think: where can I go and not smell this scent? Then a warden transforms himself into what looks like a painted vase filled with dung and filth, and comes to the offender and strokes him with its hand, so that his heart is taken with love for it. His breath fails and his life ends, and he falls into the boiling filth.
His body festers and rots and the swarming worms feed on him and pare his bones to the marrow; and pressed by thirst he drinks the hot boiling filth, while vipers and maggots gnaw the root of his tongue. In one day and night he is born ninety koṭi times and dies ninety koṭi times. His offense finished, he comes out to be born in a poor and mean family and is never his own master; and if he is born into the world he always meets an evil king and belongs to a lord of wrong views, and all kinds of evil things press upon him, and goiters, swellings, and foul sores are his clothing. But because of the good cause of having heard the Dharma in a former life, he meets a good friend, leaves the household life, studies the path, and attains arhatship.
The eighteen cauldron hells. There are eighteen cauldrons, each forty yojanas square, with seven layers of iron netting and full of molten iron. Five hundred rākṣasas fan up great lumps of charcoal to burn the copper cauldrons, and the flames follow one on another; for sixty days the fire cannot be quenched — a full one hundred and twenty thousand years by the days of Jambudvīpa. The boiling brew of the cauldron surges up and turns into a fire-wheel and goes back down into the cauldron. Those who violate the Buddha’s prohibitions and kill living beings for sacrifice; who for the sake of eating flesh burn mountain and wild and harm living things; who eat beings alive and burn them with fire —
when such an offender is about to die, his body and mind are wracked and he loses control of bowel and bladder; he is now hot as boiling water, now cold as ice; and he thinks: to get a great warm bath and go down into it — would that not be pleasant? The rākṣasa wardens turn into serving-boys who come to the offender carrying a basin of hot water in their hands. His heart is taken with delight; his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born in the cauldron. He dissolves and rots away at once, and only the bones are left. An iron fork rakes him out and iron dogs gulp him down and vomit him onto the ground, and presently he lives again. The wardens drive him back into the cauldron; and because the iron cauldron is hot he climbs up a sword-tree, and his bones and flesh break off and fall back into the cauldron. In one day and night his deaths and births are as many as the sands of the Ganges.
His offense finished, he is born as a pig, a sheep, a chicken, a dog, passing through every short-lived state without exception; and so he receives bodies for eighty million years. When that life ends he is born among humans again and receives two kinds of recompense: much sickness, and a short life. After kalpas beyond counting he meets a good friend, receives and keeps the five precepts, and practises the six pāramitās.
The ash-river hell. It is two hundred yojanas long and twelve yojanas wide; below are sharp knives and on its banks sword-trees; it is full of fierce fire twelve zhang across, and molten ash covers the fire, forty zhang deep. Those who steal from parents, teachers, elders, good friends, brothers, and sisters — such fools have no shame, do not know the kindness that reared them, and do not follow their teacher’s instruction. This is the recompense of their offense. When such a one is about to die, his breath fills his heart and belly and his panting will not run on; and he thinks: my heart is like mud and my chest is full of breath; to get one small fire to sear my body — would that not be a relief? Answering his thought, the wardens turn into his wife and children carrying a brazier with fine ash spread over it.
They come to the offender, and the offender is delighted; his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born in the ash river. Among the sword-trees is a rākṣasa holding a sharp sword and coming to harm him, and in terror the man runs into the ash river; and as he lifts and sets down his feet the knives wound them, and the sword-trees rain knives that enter through his pores, and the rākṣasa with a fork forks out his heart, and he falls to the ground and faints and dies, and presently lives again. In one day and night he is born five hundred koṭi times and dies five hundred koṭi times. Pressed by hunger and thirst he opens his mouth to eat, and the sword-trees rain knives that go in at his tongue and split his belly and tear open his chest, and he faints and dies. But because in a former life he heard the names of the Dharma and the Saṅgha, when his offense is finished he is born among humans, poor and lowly; and awakening to the impermanence of the world he leaves the household life and studies the path. If the age has no Buddha he becomes a pratyekabuddha; if the age has a Buddha he attains arhatship.
The sword-forest hell. It is eight thousand yojanas full of sword-trees, whose fruit is hot iron balls; the trees are twenty-four yojanas high. Those who are unfilial to their parents and disrespectful to teachers and elders, who work evil karma of speech, who have no heart of kindness and lay knife and staff on others — when such a one is about to die his mind is like paste and glue, sticking wherever it touches; and he thinks: my mind is bound and attached and will let nothing go; I have doted on wine and craved for sex, and though I meet with suffering my mind does not stop. To get one sharp knife and cut away this craving! Answering the sound of it, the warden turns into an attendant who holds up a mirror and says: your mind clings to much — look into this mirror. And he sees in it the image of a sharp sword.
Then he thinks: my body is frail and can no longer bear the business of desire; to get this sharp sword and cut off my mind — would that not be a relief? At that thought his breath fails and his life ends, and he receives the body of a hungry ghost. Among the sword-trees iron balls are produced by transformation, which enter at his crown and come out at his mouth, and his bowels and stomach are scorched and rotted. The wardens beat and knock him and drive him up the tree, and iron-beaked worms devour him so that in fear he climbs; and so he passes in turn through the whole sword forest. In one day and night there are eighty thousand births and deaths. His offense finished, he is born in an age of famine and in a kalpa of plague; as a man he is base, his breath always stinks, and people hate the sight of him. Afterward he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The thorn-forest hell. It is eight thousand yojanas full of iron thorns, with twelve swords at the tip of every thorn, and on the trees great hot iron hooks besides. Those guilty of harsh speech, of a double tongue, of frivolous and unrighteous speech; who jest without restraint and lie about right and wrong; who speak of the faults of the scriptures and revile the masters of debate — this is the recompense of their offense. When such a one is about to die his throat is parched and his tongue dry, and he thinks: to get one sharp thorn to prick my neck and let the blood out, so that water should run through all my veins — would that not be a relief? The rākṣasa wardens turn into his parents holding a bright pearl, with a thorn growing at the pearl’s tip, and they hold it up to his mouth as though water were about to drip from it. The offender is delighted, and his breath fails and his life ends; and in the time of a lightning-flash he is born among the thorn forest.
The rākṣasa wardens take iron hooks and drag his tongue out, and eight thousand iron oxen with a great iron plough plough his tongue apart. In one day and night there are six hundred births and deaths. After that he is born among humans with narrow shoulders, a wrinkled face, and a stammering tongue. Such an offender’s body breaks out in sores that run with pus and blood, and for five hundred lives people hate the sight of him; and after that, though he speaks, people do not believe him. Then he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The copper-pillar hell. There is a forest of copper pillars like a mountain of fire, six hundred yojanas high; below is fierce fire, above the fire an iron couch, and above that knife-wheels, and among them iron-beaked worms and iron-mouthed crows. Those in whom greed and delusion multiply and defiled craving for the unclean; who do the unclean deed in the wrong place and at the wrong time; even bhikṣuṇīs, brahmins, and others who practise the holy life, if at the wrong time and in the wrong place they break the rule of purity; and all who commit sexual misconduct — when such an offender is about to die his whole body goes rigid and shakes without stopping, and he thinks: to get one great firm pillar of copper or iron to bind this body so that it does not shake! Answering him at once, the wardens turn into serving-boys who come to him with an iron staff in hand and say: Elder, your body is strong now and all else is weak — you may take hold of this staff. His heart is delighted, and his breath fails and his life ends.
In the time it takes to grasp a staff he is born on the top of a copper pillar, and the fierce fire blazes and burns his body. Terrified, he looks down and sees on the iron couch a beautiful woman — or if it is a woman, she sees a handsome man — and his heart is taken with love and he throws himself down from the copper pillar to the ground. The copper pillar runs him through, iron netting binds his neck, and the iron-beaked worms devour his frame. He falls onto the iron couch, and in man and woman alike fire breaks out in the six faculties, and iron-beaked worms go in at the eyes and come out at the organs of sex. For one who has defiled the precepts there are besides nine koṭis of small worms, like maggots, each with twelve beaks, fire coming out of the beak-tips as they devour his body. In one day and night he is born nine hundred koṭi times and dies nine hundred koṭi times.
He comes out to be born as pigeons and doves for five hundred lives, and then among the nāgas for five hundred bodies, and then among humans without organs of sex, or with both, or with organs indeterminate — the body of a eunuch — for five hundred lives. And should he become a man, his wife is not chaste, his children are not loving and dutiful, and his servants do not obey. After that he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The iron-trigger hell. There is an iron couch four hundred yojanas square, set with triggers, and between the triggers are myriads of koṭis of iron crossbows, and the head of each iron crossbow has a hundred koṭis of sharp blades. Those who for the sake of greed are unfilial to their parents, who do not respect teachers and elders, who do not follow good instruction and who kill living beings — when such a man dies his body shakes and fluid runs from his six orifices, and he sees his own bed as though it were tūla cotton: to get a firm, cool place to lie — would that not be pleasant? The rākṣasa wardens lift a couch with their forks, melting fire into a rug upon it, and come to the offender; and delighted, he wishes to lie down. His breath fails and his life ends, and he is born upon the iron trigger-frame. Myriads of koṭis of iron triggers are sprung from below, and the iron triggers rise up beyond measure, and the iron crossbows all draw at once and two iron arrows shoot the offender through the heart. In one day and night there are six hundred koṭi births and deaths. Then he is born among animals for five hundred lives, and returning among humans is poor and lowly and ordered about by others, often thrown into prison and constantly whipped. Afterward he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The iron-net hell. There are eighty-nine layers of iron netting, and between every net a hundred koṭis of iron needles, and every iron needle fitted with five triggers. Those of crooked and flattering mind who bewitch and delude others, who harbour slander and malice and think evil thoughts day and night — when they come to die the body itches all over, and he thinks: to get a bundle of needles and prick it — would that not be a relief? At that thought the warden turns into a good physician who holds sharp needles and calls out, I cure diseases! The offender’s heart is glad; his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born among the iron nets. As his body is dragged down through them all the triggers move, and measureless needles shoot into his pores; and so he writhes among the iron nets, dying and being born in the space of an instant. His offense finished, he comes out to be born in a border land where the Buddha’s Dharma is not, where he does not even hear good words of the world, much less the true Dharma; and though he is born among humans he is reckoned within the three evil destinies. Afterward he meets a good friend, and though he hears the Dharma his mind does not understand it.
The iron-cave hell. This is the highest form of suffering in the path of hungry ghosts. There is an iron mountain twenty-five yojanas square, and on the mountain five hundred myriads of koṭis of great hot iron balls, each ball round and thirteen yojanas about; and among the mountains a hundred thousand knives and swords. Then the mountain opens a little hole on its eastern side, the size of a Magadhan peck-measure, which lets out nothing but black smoke. Those bound by miserliness and greed, whose hearts are hard as vajra, who delight only in asking for more and are never satisfied; who give nothing at all to parents, wife, and children; who look on their teachers and instructors as so much dung; who give neither clothing nor food to their servants and friends — such misers give no thought to impermanence and guard their goods as they guard their own eyes.
When such a one is about to die, all his faculties are stopped up and his mouth is clenched and speechless, and in his heart he thinks silently: after I am dead these evil men will eat my wealth as though they were eating iron balls, and will live in my house as though living in a dark room. At that thought the warden turns into a miser who gathers up much wealth and burns it in the fire. The offender’s heart is glad; his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born on the mountain of fire as though in a cave of molten copper and cast iron. Sword-worms and knife-worms devour his frame; the smoke stings his eyes so that he cannot see the flames; he runs east and west beating his head against the iron mountain, and the iron balls pass from his crown clean through his feet. He dies and is born in the space of a single thought. His offense finished, he comes out to be born among the hungry ghosts, his body tens of yojanas long, his throat like the tube of a needle and his belly like a great mountain; and seeking food east and west he has molten copper poured down his throat, for eight thousand years. Then he is born among the ghosts that feed on pus, spittle, and blood; then among privy-spirits, pigs, and dogs. His offense finished at last, he is born poor and base with neither clothing nor food. Then he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The iron-ball hell. It is eighty yojanas filled with an iron city of eighty-eight compartments, and in each compartment five knife-mountains are laid over it as a lid, and below are eighteen great and evil iron snakes that all spit out iron swords with fire burning at the sword-tips. Those who revile giving and say that giving has no reward, who urge others to hoard, who tell kings and great ministers, śramaṇas and brahmins and every assembly that giving has neither cause nor fruit — when such a one comes to die his neck stiffens and his veins draw up; he turns away and will not speak and does not like to see people; he lies with his gaze lowered, thinking only: the treasure I have piled up — if it could go with me, that would be joy beyond words. The warden turns into his wife, who takes a hot iron ball and makes it appear as a jewelled vessel before him and says: I shall follow you into death; we shall cling to each other and never be parted. His breath fails and his life ends, and he is born in the iron city and runs east and west. The iron snakes put out their venom and coil about his body, and fire burns at every joint; and he thinks: may the gods love me and send down sweet rain. Answering his thought it rains great hot iron balls that enter at his neck and come out at his feet. His offense finished, he becomes a poor, solitary, mute man; the number of his years is as told of the iron cave. Then he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment.
The sharp-stone hell. There are twenty-five stone mountains, and each stone mountain has eight pools of water, and each pool five poisonous dragons. Bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs, śrāmaṇeras and śrāmaṇerīs, śikṣamāṇās, upāsakas and upāsikās, and those under the rules of the ninety-five kinds of brahmacārins, who break a light precept and long fail to confess it, having no shame in their hearts — when such a one is about to die his breath fills him below the heart and his belly swells like a drum; food and drink choke him and come back up, and water and gruel will not go down; and he thinks: to get one sharp stone to plug my throat — would that not be a relief? Then the warden turns into a good physician who snaps off a sharp stone and works it into a great medicine-pill and puts it in his mouth, saying: close your mouth. His heart is glad; his breath fails and his life ends, and he is born among the stone mountains. Measureless sharp stones enter at his back and come out at his chest, and the warden forks his mouth open with an iron fork and puts the stones inside. In one day and night there are sixty koṭi births. This is the recompense of the present birth.
When this life ends he falls into the black-cord hell. The black-cord hell has eight hundred iron chains and eight hundred iron mountains; a great iron banner-pole is set up with the chains tied at both ends. The wardens harry him and make him run greedily along the iron cord, and unable to keep his footing he falls down into a cauldron. Struggling up in urgent thirst he drinks iron and swallows stones and runs on. In one day and night he goes through this suffering a hundred thousand times over. His offense finished, he is born into the world as another man’s servant; and he meets a good friend who preaches the true Dharma to him, and he attains arhatship.
The molten-copper-drinking hell. There are one thousand two hundred kinds of copper carts of mingled colours, and on each copper cart six thousand copper balls. Those who are miserly, greedy, and envious, of wrong views and evil speech; who give nothing to parents, wife, children, and kin, nor to anyone at all; whose hearts breed stinginess and jealousy, so that another’s gain is like an arrow entering the heart — when such an offender is about to die he is much sick and wasted and talks deliriously in a stupor. Then the warden comes to him with a copper cart loaded with fruit; and having got it he is delighted and thinks: to get this sweet fruit answers my wish exactly. His breath fails and his life ends, and he is born on the copper cart, and before long goes on to be born among the copper mountains.
The copper cart wrenches his neck round, and the warden pries his mouth open with pincers and gives him molten copper to drink; and dazed, he falls to the ground crying out, Hungry! Hungry! At once the warden splits his mouth open and puts balls of copper and iron into it, and he swallows eighteen balls, and every joint blazes with fire and he runs east and west; and only after seven days does his life end. The warden calls out to him: in your former body you were fawning and of wrong views, miserly and envious — by that cause you receive the recompense of iron balls. Or else you once left the household life and broke light precepts and long failed to repent, falsely consuming the offerings of the faithful — by that cause you eat these iron balls. Such an offender’s recompense is that for a thousand myriads of koṭis of years he knows neither water nor grain. His punishment finished, he is born again among humans, and for five hundred lives his speech stammers so that he cannot make himself understood; and because of his old habit, after eating he goes on to eat clods of earth. After that he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment. (From the Sūtra of the Samādhi of Contemplating the Buddha, fascicle five)
The eighteen sub-hells are built on one repeating template, and the repetition is the point: each one names an offense, then a deathbed wish that the offense has shaped, then a warden who supplies exactly that wish. The man who robbed people and left them to freeze feels fire at his death and longs for ice; the man who killed for pleasure feels his chest harden and longs for a knife; the miser dies unable to speak, thinking of who will spend his money. In every case the wish is granted and is the trap.
Two features of this entry are worth marking. First, the closing formula — 後遇善知識發菩提心, afterward he meets a good friend and gives rise to the mind of enlightenment — ends nearly every section, including the worst of them; three sections end instead with the attainment of arhatship. The text is not describing a final state. Second, several of the offenses are internal to the monastic community: defiling the Saṅgha's food, sitting on its couches, consuming its offerings falsely, keeping the poṣadha while concealing an unconfessed offense. The boiling-filth hell is assigned almost entirely to monks and nuns.
On numbers: 億 is rendered koṭi throughout rather than converted, since the text's arithmetic is not meant to be added up. The eighteen sub-hells listed at the head do not match the eighteen described in the body at two points (鐵輞, iron rims, in the list against 鐵網, iron nets, in the body; 鐵璣 against 鐵機); we translate each as the source has it rather than reconcile them.
3. Sixty-Four Hells, with the Cause of Each and the Suffering It Shows
A bare register of sixty-four hells, each in a sentence or two: the name, the punishment, the deed that earned it, and often the shape of the next birth. The offenses here are small and domestic — putting filth in a well, breaking wind in a sage's room, calling good food filth, griddling shrimp, killing lice, handling a scripture with dirty hands. The sixty-fourth is not a hell at all but the place where the sentence ends.
一曰脚蹋。先蹋殺人今為獄鬼所噉。經二百歲。二曰刀山。先殺眾生今受罪二百歲。三曰審諦。瞋心罵人以為鳥獸。五百歲中鐵杵撞口。罪畢受生人頭鳥身。口常言罪。四曰抱刀劍。自犯婬戒。又犯持戒人。五曰沸沙。先以熱灰覆眾生上。六曰沸井。井水常沸。以惡心用不淨物致井中。罪畢百歲為井中蝦蟇。七曰竈窓獄卒。以人倒內竈窓中。此女生時。以顧影衣裔他男子。八曰啞鬼。獄常燒鐵鉹烙其舌。生時父母及師喚之不應。經二百歲後生為啞人。九曰熱灰。七百里滿中熱灰。此人生時起婬欲心。就貞女宿終不果遂。受罪二百歲。後生患瘡及恐怖。十曰沸屎。三萬里滿中屎尿。驅人入中。昔賜人好食。瞋言如食不淨。受罪五百歲為猪。十一曰膖臭。縱廣二千五百里。滿中膿血。此人生時以不善心入聖人室失氣泄穢。受罪二百四十歲。後生貧賤人中身體常臭。十二曰不淨。縱廣千里滿中涕唾。慢心不淨手捻香供養大聖。後生人中常慢。十三曰不淨。六百里膿。生時食正中。有鼠屎狗食不淨。投淨食中。受罪二百歲出生作狗。十四曰黑耳常闇。生時以不善心障佛光明。受罪七百歲。十五曰縱廣四萬里。恒被斫射打剔推[石*甲]。此人生時作五逆業。受罪動經數劫。若展轉諸獄。故亦有劫數也一萬歲。十六曰相殺。婦殺夫夫殺婦。母殺兒兒殺母。其人昔時殺他人父母。并殺眾生父母及兒。及生人中。父母子孫皆悉早死。十七曰斫身。恒為獄鬼所斫。先斫眾生故。後生憙遭縣官。十八曰火車。此人猶燒殺眾生。後生被燒。十九曰不識法。滿中癡人聞揵搥聲。慢心而臥。後生邊地。二十曰鐵熬。熬蝦蟹故。後生短壽。二十一曰餓鬼。身長四十里。腹如萬斛簞。頸長十里。恒苦飢渴口氣恒臭。見食化成炭。飲成膿血。猶食齋食不持齋。後生八百世常作羅剎。二十二曰剛炭。盜心取他物手捧剛炭。後生貧賤為人所使。二十三曰鑊湯。生時惡心以熱湯澆地蟲。二十四曰鐵床。婬他婦女逼犯持戒女人。男抱銅柱女臥鐵床。二十五曰鐵丸。猶炮煮鷄鴨子。後生常苦迷荒。二十六曰貢高坐地獄。生時貢高食他信施。自恃有德起心貢高。二十七曰黑耳。獄鬼以刀節節支解。淫比丘。後生下賤女人之中。五百歲作黃門。二十八曰寒氷獄。生時擲眾生致寒凍處。後生貧賤常無衣服。二十九曰石窟。滿中煙火。惡心熏殺眾生。三十曰權收。鬼獄收之以瞋心滅屑殺蟣虱。三十一曰[打-丁+(恙-心+皿)]。山以[打-丁+(恙-心+皿)]殺蟣虱。後生短壽。三十二曰熱湯澆身。披著好衣誘他婦女。罪畢為鳥獸。三十三曰餓鬼。身長三十里。咽下有癭決膿食之。或見好食。眾鬼競奪不得食之。得他好食不先上上座食。後生貧窮。三十四曰餓鬼。身長十里或五里。身毛剛利。慳不施食實有言無。後生貧賤多無飲食。三十五曰惡狗。多諸惡狗牙利如劍。獄鬼喚狗競共嚙之。生時喚狗嚙殺眾生。後得為人喜被狗嚙。三十六曰鐵杙。驅人履之。生時含毒看父母師長。後生毒蛇中。三十七曰剝皮。鬼恒利刀剝其皮。生惡心剝人衣被。及剝眾生皮。後生人中常為人所剝奪。三十八曰倒懸。獄卒悉取人倒懸。生時倒懸眾生。三十九曰畜生。獄鬼洋銅灌其口。負債抵而不還。後五百歲中。為人牛馬奴婢。喜得鞭打。四十曰耕身。獄鬼以鐵犁耕身。生時耕地傷眾生。惡心稱懀。四十一曰鏃眼。獄鬼常以鐵鏃鏃其眼。生時惡心惡眼看其父母。後生人中眼常通睛。四十二曰刀兵。獄鬼斫射。此人生時瞋心相殺。後生人中喜得斫射。四十三曰割刺。獄鬼生割其肉。此人生時惡心割人肉。罪畢為人喜得割刺。四十四曰鐵磨。獄鬼以鐵磨磨人。此人生時以惡心磨殺磨此中蟲。四十五曰㩚弄。滿中鐵磨。獄鬼驅人入磨磨之。四十六曰㩚弄。此人生時。見眾生入㩚弄中。生惡心我誓不救。後生人中身體黃熟。四十七曰石臼。卒驅入臼中擣之。此人生時惡心擣殺眾生。罪畢為螺蜯。四十八曰憍慢。人頭蛇身。此人生時臥地誦經。四十九曰水地獄。水停住不流。此人生時抑人水中沒溺而死。五十曰[仁-二+屬]儒。獄鬼石[石*甲]人頭。此人生時慢心。使父母師長倚。令其兒生言不恭敬。五十一曰鐵棒。獄鬼常使其身棒鐵此人生時以惡心殺蟣虱。五十二曰恐怖。常為牛頭阿旁所恐。此人生時常恐人故。五十三曰鐵杙。水底布鐵杙。獄鬼驅人入水中刺身流血。生時嫉妬布杙傷人。五十四曰飲洋銅。生時慢心學父母師長語。後常蹇吃。五十五曰鐵鏃。獄鬼以鐵鏃鏃其眼。此人生時惡心生刺眾生瞳子。罪畢為盲人。五十六曰鐵扠獄。獄鬼以鐵扠扠人。此人生時惡心扠魚及餘眾生。五十七曰蛆蟲。唼食人身。此人生時蛆妬傷人。及六畜財物。罪畢為人身患惡瘡。五十八曰刀解手。獄鬼以利刀解其兩手。此人生時以慢心。用不淨手捉經。五十九曰啼哭。獄鬼護來恐怖令其啼哭。此人生時常憂錢財以營婬欲。後生為人恒苦少財。六十曰鐵拘。獄鬼常以鐵拘拘其身體。此人生時拘殺眾生。六十一曰洋銅。獄鬼洋銅灌其口。此人生時惡心。妄語兩舌惡罵綺語。罪畢為人口氣常臭。六十二曰洋銅灌手。此人生時心不敬道。以不淨手捉沙門衣。六十三曰射身。獄鬼以箭射之。此人生時惡心射殺眾生。六十四曰無擇(梁言生終)凡有五王者。一曰隨王。二曰劫王。三曰丑王。四曰自然王。五曰眾生王。皆發信心大乘誓願度地獄眾生。諸地獄罪畢者來入此中。斷其昔行作罪多少。捨地獄身受中陰形如三歲小兒。更隨行業從父母受生(出問地獄經)。
The first is called Trampling. He trampled men to death before; now he is devoured by the hell-ghosts, for two hundred years.
The second is called Knife Mountain. He killed living beings before; now he undergoes punishment for two hundred years. The third is called Strict Examination. With an angry mind he cursed people as birds and beasts; for five hundred years an iron pestle rams his mouth. His offense finished, he is born with a human head and a bird’s body, and his mouth speaks of his offense without stopping.
The fourth is called Embracing Knives and Swords. He himself broke the precept against sexual misconduct, and violated one who kept the precepts besides. The fifth is called Boiling Sand. He formerly covered living beings over with hot ash.
The sixth is called the Boiling Well. The water of the well boils without stopping. With an evil mind he put unclean things into a well. His offense finished, for a hundred years he is a frog in a well. The seventh is called the Stove-Mouth. The wardens put people head first into the mouth of the stove. This woman, when she was alive, admired her own reflection and trailed her sleeves at other men. The eighth is called the Mute Ghost. In the hell they are always heating an iron ladle and searing his tongue with it. When he was alive, his parents and his teacher called him and he would not answer. After two hundred years he is born a mute. The ninth is called Hot Ash: seven hundred li filled with hot ash. This man, when he was alive, raised thoughts of lust and went to lodge with a chaste woman, but in the end did not accomplish it. He undergoes punishment for two hundred years, and afterward is born with sores and with terrors. The tenth is called Boiling Filth: thirty thousand li filled with dung and urine, and men are driven into it. He once gave a man good food and then said angrily that it was like eating filth. He undergoes punishment for five hundred years, and becomes a pig.
The eleventh is called Bloated Stench: two thousand five hundred li square, filled with pus and blood. This man, when he was alive, entered a sage’s chamber with an unwholesome mind and broke wind and let out filth there. He undergoes punishment for two hundred and forty years, and afterward is born among the poor and lowly with a body that always stinks. The twelfth is called Uncleanness: a thousand li square, filled with snot and spittle. With an arrogant mind and unclean hands he took up incense and made offering to the Great Sage. He is born afterward among humans and is always arrogant. The thirteenth is called Uncleanness: six hundred li of pus. When he was alive, at the midday meal there was rat dung and food a dog had made unclean, and he threw it into the clean food. He undergoes punishment for two hundred years and comes out to be born a dog. The fourteenth is called Black Ear, and is always dark. When he was alive he blocked the Buddha’s light with an unwholesome mind. He undergoes punishment for seven hundred years.
The fifteenth is forty thousand li square, and there one is constantly hacked, shot, beaten, scraped, shoved, and crushed with stones. This man, when he was alive, committed the karma of the five heinous deeds. His punishment often runs to several kalpas; and if he passes in turn through the several hells there are kalpa-counts for that as well — ten thousand years. The sixteenth is called Mutual Killing: wife kills husband and husband kills wife, mother kills child and child kills mother. This man in a former time killed other people’s parents, and killed the parents and the children of living beings besides; and when he is born among humans, his parents, his children, and his grandchildren all die early. The seventeenth is called Hacking the Body: he is constantly hacked by the hell-ghosts, because he hacked living beings before. Afterward he is born liable to fall foul of the magistrates. The eighteenth is called the Fire Cart: this man burned living beings to death, and afterward is burned himself. The nineteenth is called Not Knowing the Dharma: it is full of fools who, hearing the sound of the gong, lay themselves down with an arrogant mind. They are born afterward in a border land. The twentieth is called the Iron Griddle: because he griddled shrimp and crabs, he is born afterward short-lived.
The twenty-first is called the Hungry Ghost: the body is forty li long, the belly like a hamper of ten thousand pecks, the neck ten li long; he is always tormented by hunger and thirst and his breath always stinks; food he sees turns into charcoal, and what he drinks becomes pus and blood. It is because he ate the food of the fast without keeping the fast. Afterward, for eight hundred lives, he is always a rākṣasa. The twenty-second is called Hard Charcoal: he took another’s goods with a thieving mind, and his hands hold hard charcoal. Afterward he is born poor and lowly and is ordered about by others. The twenty-third is called the Cauldron: when he was alive he poured boiling water on the worms of the ground with an evil mind. The twenty-fourth is called the Iron Couch: he took other men’s wives and forced women who kept the precepts. The man embraces the copper pillar and the woman lies on the iron couch. The twenty-fifth is called Iron Balls: because he roasted and boiled the eggs of hens and ducks, he is afterward always afflicted with a dazed confusion. The twenty-sixth is called the Hell of the Lofty Seat: when he was alive he was haughty and ate the offerings of the faithful, presuming on his own virtue and raising a mind of arrogance.
The twenty-seventh is called Black Ear: the hell-ghosts dismember him joint by joint with a knife. He had illicit relations with a bhikṣu. Afterward he is born among women of low estate, and for five hundred years is a eunuch. The twenty-eighth is called the Cold Ice Hell: when he was alive he threw living beings into freezing places. Afterward he is born poor and lowly and never has clothing. The twenty-ninth is called the Stone Cave: it is full of smoke and fire. With an evil mind he smoked living beings to death. The thirtieth is called Seizure: the ghosts of the hell seize him, because with an angry mind he crushed lice and nits to death.
The thirty-first is called Crushing: a mountain of it. Because he crushed lice and nits to death, he is born afterward short-lived. The thirty-second is called Scalding Water Poured over the Body: wearing fine clothes he enticed other men’s wives. His offense finished, he becomes a bird or a beast. The thirty-third is called the Hungry Ghost: the body is thirty li long, with a swelling below the throat which he lances and eats the pus of; or, seeing good food, he is fought off by the crowd of ghosts and cannot eat it. It is because, when he got good food, he did not first serve it to those seated above him. Afterward he is born poor. The thirty-fourth is called the Hungry Ghost: the body is ten li long, or five li, and the hair of the body is hard and sharp. Because he was stingy and did not give food, and said he had none when he had, he is born afterward poor and lowly and mostly without food or drink. The thirty-fifth is called Evil Dogs: there are many evil dogs with fangs sharp as swords, and the hell-ghosts call the dogs and they vie with one another to bite him. When he was alive he called dogs to bite living beings to death. When he becomes a man again he is readily bitten by dogs.
The thirty-sixth is called Iron Stakes: men are driven to walk upon them. When he was alive he looked at his parents, teachers, and elders with venom in him. Afterward he is born among poisonous snakes. The thirty-seventh is called Flaying: the ghosts are always flaying his skin with a sharp knife. With an evil mind he stripped people of their clothes and bedding, and flayed the skins of living beings. Afterward, born among humans, he is always stripped and robbed by others. The thirty-eighth is called Hanging Upside Down: the wardens take every man and hang him upside down. When he was alive he hung living beings upside down. The thirty-ninth is called the Animals: the hell-ghosts pour molten copper into his mouth. He owed debts and would not repay them. Afterward, for five hundred years, he is another man’s ox, horse, or slave, and is readily whipped. The fortieth is called Ploughing the Body: the hell-ghosts plough his body with an iron plough. When he was alive he ploughed the ground and injured living beings, and spoke of them with loathing in an evil mind.
The forty-first is called Arrowheads in the Eyes: the hell-ghosts are always driving iron arrowheads into his eyes. When he was alive he looked at his parents with an evil mind and an evil eye. Afterward, born among humans, his eyes always stare. The forty-second is called Blade and Weapon: the hell-ghosts hack him and shoot him. This man, when he was alive, killed others with an angry mind. Afterward, born among humans, he is readily hacked and shot. The forty-third is called Cutting and Stabbing: the hell-ghosts cut his flesh from him alive. This man, when he was alive, cut people’s flesh with an evil mind. His offense finished, as a man he is readily cut and stabbed. The forty-fourth is called the Iron Mill: the hell-ghosts grind men with an iron mill. This man, when he was alive, with an evil mind ground and killed the insects that were in his mill. The forty-fifth is called the Press: it is full of iron mills, and the hell-ghosts drive men into the mills and grind them. The forty-sixth is called the Press: this man, when he was alive, saw living beings going into the press and with an evil mind vowed that he would not save them. Afterward, born among humans, his body is sallow and overripe. The forty-seventh is called the Stone Mortar: the wardens drive him into the mortar and pound him. This man, when he was alive, pounded living beings to death with an evil mind. His offense finished, he becomes a snail or a clam.
The forty-eighth is called Arrogance: a human head on a snake’s body. This man, when he was alive, lay on the ground reciting the scriptures. The forty-ninth is called the Water Hell: the water stands and does not flow. This man, when he was alive, held people down in the water so that they drowned and died. The fiftieth is called the Stunted: the hell-ghosts crush men’s heads with stones. This man, when he was alive, had an arrogant mind, made his parents, teachers, and elders wait upon him, and let his children grow up speaking without respect.
The fifty-first is called the Iron Cudgel: the hell-ghosts are always at his body with iron cudgels. This man, when he was alive, killed lice and nits with an evil mind. The fifty-second is called Terror: he is constantly terrified by the ox-headed Ābāng. This man, when he was alive, was always terrifying others. The fifty-third is called Iron Stakes: iron stakes are set in the bed of the water, and the hell-ghosts drive men into the water and their bodies are pierced and run with blood. When he was alive he set stakes out of envy to injure people. The fifty-fourth is called Drinking Molten Copper: when he was alive he mimicked the speech of his parents, teachers, and elders with an arrogant mind. Afterward he always stammers. The fifty-fifth is called Iron Arrowheads: the hell-ghosts drive iron arrowheads into his eyes. This man, when he was alive, pierced the pupils of living beings with an evil mind. His offense finished, he becomes a blind man. The fifty-sixth is called the Iron Fork Hell: the hell-ghosts spear men with an iron fork. This man, when he was alive, speared fish and other living beings with an evil mind. The fifty-seventh is called Maggots: they devour the man’s body. This man, when he was alive, injured people out of envy, and their livestock and their goods as well. His offense finished, as a man his body suffers foul sores.
The fifty-eighth is called Knife-Severed Hands: the hell-ghosts sever both his hands with a sharp knife. This man, when he was alive, took up the scriptures with unclean hands and an arrogant mind. The fifty-ninth is called Weeping: the hell-ghosts come at him and terrify him and make him weep. This man, when he was alive, was always anxious over money and goods, and this to serve his lust. Afterward, born a man, he is always distressed by having little money. The sixtieth is called Iron Fetters: the hell-ghosts are always fettering his body with iron fetters. This man, when he was alive, fettered living beings and killed them. The sixty-first is called Molten Copper: the hell-ghosts pour molten copper into his mouth. This man, when he was alive, with an evil mind spoke falsely, spoke with a double tongue, cursed harshly, and talked frivolously. His offense finished, as a man his breath always stinks. The sixty-second is called Molten Copper Poured on the Hands: this man, when he was alive, had no reverence for the Way and took hold of a śramaṇa’s robe with unclean hands. The sixty-third is called Shooting the Body: the hell-ghosts shoot him with arrows. This man, when he was alive, shot living beings dead with an evil mind.
The sixty-fourth is called Without Choosing (which in the language of Liang is Life’s End). There are in all five kings: the first is King Suí, the second King Jié, the third King Chǒu, the fourth King Zìrán, the fifth King Zhòngshēng. All of them have raised a mind of faith in the Great Vehicle and vowed to deliver the beings of the hells. Those whose punishment in the several hells is finished come in here; and there it is determined how much offense their former conduct amounted to. They cast off the hell body and receive an intermediate-state form like a child of three years, and then, following their deeds, receive birth from a father and mother. (From the Sūtra of Questions on the Hells)
This entry is the compendium at its most mechanical, and also its most revealing. The sixty-four hells are a sentencing table: a punishment, the act that earned it, the length of the term, and the next birth. The acts are almost all small — a woman who trailed her sleeves at men, a man who would not answer when his parents called, someone who put rat dung into clean food, someone who ground the insects in his own mill, someone who lay down instead of sitting up to recite. Two hundred years is the commonest term.
The list contains obvious duplicates (two hells named Uncleanness, two named Black Ear, two named Iron Stakes, two named the Press, three named Hungry Ghost) and one entry, the fifteenth, that has lost its name and carries a sentence-length that contradicts itself. We print all of it as it stands.
The sixty-fourth entry is of a different kind. Under the name Without Choosing it describes not a punishment but a release: five kings who have vowed in the Great Vehicle to deliver the beings of the hells, a reckoning of what was actually done, and an intermediate-state body the size of a three-year-old child waiting for parents. Whoever assembled this list put the way out at the end of it.
4. The Five Great Hells and the Forms of Suffering Undergone in Them
The Great Perfection of Wisdom's account of the great hells — Reviving, Crushing Together, Wailing and Great Wailing, Hot and Greatly Hot, and Avīci — with, for each, the specific worldly conduct that is matched to it: cheating with weights, judging cases against the law, oppressing the weak, boiling silkworm cocoons, burning villages and shrines.
活大地獄。惡心瞋爭以矟相刺。鐵抓相攫血相塗漫。痛毒逼切悶無所覺。冷風來吹。獄卒喚活罪人還活。是故名為活獄。此中眾生前世好殺物命牛羊禽獸。為田宅國土錢財等利而相殺害。受此罪報。合會大地獄。羅剎獄卒。作種種形諸惡獸頭。而來吞噉齩齧罪人。兩山相合熱鐵輪轢。熱鐵臼擣亦如押油。聚肉成積血流成池。鵰鷲虎狼各來牽掣。此人前世多殺眾生還受此形獄。又以力勢相凌拄押羸弱。受兩山相合罪。慳貪瞋恚愚癡怖畏。斷事輕重不以正理。或破正道。受熱鐵輪轢鐵臼擣。第四第五名叫喚大叫喚。此大地獄其中罪人。羅剎獄卒頸黃眼赤火從中出。著朱色衣身肉堅勁。走射罪人。罪人狂怖叩頭求哀。呼大將軍小見憐愍。將入熱鐵地獄。縱廣百由旬。驅打驅走足皆燋然。脂髓流出如笮蘇油。鐵棒頭額其腦流出如破酪瓶。復將入鐵閣屋間。黑煙來燻。互相堆押意欲求出。其門已閉大喚㘁呼聲常不絕。此人前世斗秤欺誑。非法斷事受寄不還。侵凌下劣惱諸貧窮令其號哭。破他城邑壞人聚落。傷害劫奪舉城叫呼。詐誘令出而復害之。今受叫喚地獄。燻殺穴居之類幽閉囹圄。或闇煙窟中而燻殺之。或投井中劫奪他財。皆受大叫喚地獄罪報。第六第七熱大熱地獄。中有二大銅鑊。鹹沸水滿中。羅剎獄卒以罪人投中。脚上頭下骨節解零。以釵釵出冷風吹活復投炭坑中。或著沸灰中。從灰中出放熱沙中。又以膿血而自煎熬。從炭坑出投之焰床強驅令坐。眼耳鼻口及諸毛孔一切火出。此人宿世惱亂父母師長沙門婆羅門諸善好人。惱令心熱今受熱地獄報。或有前世煮殺生繭。或生爛猪羊。或以木貫人腹而生炙之。或焚山野及諸聚落佛圖精舍及天祠。或推眾生著火坑中。故生此地獄。阿毘地獄縱廣四千里。其處最深。獄卒羅剎從頭剝皮乃至其足。以五百釘釘其身體如挓牛皮。熱鐵火車躒其身。驅入火坑令抱炭出。利刀劍矟飛入身中迷悶萎熟。或顛匐墮落。此人宿行多造大惡。五逆重罪斷善根。法言非法非法言法。破因破果憎嫉善人。入此地獄受罪最劇(出大智論略其小同取其尤異)。
The great hell called Reviving. With evil minds they quarrel in anger and stab one another with lances, and claw one another with iron talons until they are smeared over with blood; and the sharpness of the pain presses on them until they faint and feel nothing. Then a cold wind comes and blows, and the wardens call to them to live, and the offenders live again. That is why it is called the Reviving Hell. The beings here, in their former lives, delighted in killing the lives of creatures — oxen, sheep, birds, and beasts — and killed and harmed one another for the sake of fields and houses, of lands and of money; and they undergo this recompense of offense.
The great hell called Crushing Together. The rākṣasa wardens take every kind of shape, with the heads of all the evil beasts, and come to swallow and gnaw the offenders. Two mountains close together; hot iron wheels run over them; a hot iron mortar pounds them as oil is pressed. Their flesh is heaped into a pile and their blood runs together into a pool, and vultures, eagles, tigers, and wolves each come and drag pieces away. This man in a former life killed many living beings, and so receives this shape and this hell. And by strength and by rank he bullied and oppressed and crushed the weak, and so receives the offense of the two mountains closing together. And out of miserliness, greed, anger, folly, and fear he judged matters light or heavy without regard for right principle, or else he broke the true path; and so he receives the running of the hot iron wheels and the pounding of the iron mortar.
The fourth and the fifth are named Wailing and Great Wailing. In these great hells the rākṣasa wardens have yellow necks and red eyes with fire coming out of them; they wear vermilion clothing and the flesh of their bodies is hard and taut, and they run and shoot at the offenders. The offenders in their mad terror knock their heads on the ground and beg for pity, crying, Great general, have a little mercy on me! They are taken into the hot iron hell, a hundred yojanas square, and driven and beaten and made to run until their feet are all charred; the fat and marrow run out of them as sesame oil runs from the press. Iron cudgels strike their heads and foreheads until the brains run out like a broken jar of curds. Then they are taken into a room of iron chambers, and black smoke comes and smothers them, and they heap and press against one another wanting to get out; but the door is already shut, and the loud cries and shrieking never stop. This man in a former life cheated with weights and measures, judged matters against the law, and did not return what was entrusted to him; he oppressed the low and the weak and vexed the poor until they wept aloud; he broke down other men’s cities and ruined their villages, wounding, robbing, and plundering until a whole city cried out; he lured people out by trickery and then destroyed them: and now he receives the Wailing Hell. Those who smoked to death the creatures that live in burrows, who shut men up in prison, or smoked them to death in a dark cave of smoke, or threw them down a well and robbed them of their goods — all these receive the recompense of the Great Wailing Hell.
The sixth and seventh are the Hot and the Greatly Hot hells. In them are two great copper cauldrons full of boiling brine, and the rākṣasa wardens throw the offenders in, feet up and head down, until the joints of their bones come apart. They are hooked out with a fork, a cold wind blows them alive again, and they are thrown into a pit of charcoal; or set in boiling ash; and coming out of the ash they are set down in hot sand; and they are boiled down in their own pus and blood. Coming out of the charcoal pit they are thrown onto a bed of flame and forced to sit on it, and fire comes out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth and out of every pore. This man in a former life vexed and troubled his parents, his teachers and elders, śramaṇas and brahmins and all good people, and vexed them till their hearts burned; and now he receives the recompense of the hot hells. Or in a former life he boiled the cocoons of living silkworms to death; or scalded pigs and sheep alive; or ran a stake through a man’s belly and roasted him alive; or burned mountain and wilderness, or villages, Buddhist monasteries and hermitages and the shrines of the gods; or pushed living beings into a fire pit: and so he is born in these hells.
The Avīci hell is four thousand li square and is the deepest place of all. The rākṣasa wardens flay the skin from the head all the way down to the feet, and with five hundred nails they nail the body out like a stretched oxhide. A hot iron fire-cart runs over the body; he is driven into a fire pit and made to come out carrying charcoal in his arms; sharp knives, swords, and lances fly into his body, and he faints and grows limp and rotten, or stumbles and falls headlong. This man in his past conduct did many great evils: the five heinous offenses, the grave sins, the cutting off of the roots of good; he called the Dharma no Dharma and no Dharma the Dharma; he denied cause and denied effect and hated and envied good men. Entering this hell he undergoes the fiercest punishment of all. (From the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, abridging what it shares with the others and taking what is most distinctive)
The Great Perfection of Wisdom's version is the most systematic of the three hell accounts in these two fascicles, and the only one that pairs each torment with a social offense rather than a ritual one. False weights, judgments given against the law, deposits not returned, cities broken and villages ruined, the poor vexed until they wept — these produce the Wailing hells. The interlinear note at the end says the compiler has abridged what this source shares with the others and kept what is distinctive to it, which is an unusually explicit statement of editorial method.
This entry, and with it the compendium, ends on the word 最劇 — the fiercest of all. The Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng has no closing colophon and no summary: after fifty fascicles that began with the heavens and the wheel-turning kings, it stops at the bottom of Avīci, mid-register, as though the list had simply run out.