Which Chinese deity is the ruler of the underworld?

Yanluo Wang is the Chinese deity who rules the underworld. He governs Diyu, the Chinese realm of the dead, where souls are judged according to their actions.

His name derives from Yama, the death judge of Indian religious traditions, whose figure entered China through Buddhism and was reshaped within Chinese religious traditions. Yanluo Wang is often portrayed as a stern magistrate with a red face, bulging eyes, a beard, and a judge’s cap or crown marked with the character for “king.”

In many accounts, he is the most prominent of the Ten Kings of Hell and serves as both ruler and judge. The dead may be questioned, punished, rewarded, and eventually sent toward reincarnation. The underworld is therefore not always understood as an eternal destination.

A common mix-up is confusing Yanluo Wang with Kṣitigarbha, a Buddhist bodhisattva associated with rescuing beings from hell, or with Zhong Kui, a demon-queller. Yanluo Wang’s defining role is judicial authority over the dead.