Why is Yan Luowang an "exotic" brought by Buddhism?

In China's myths and legends, the world is divided into heaven, earth and people. Among them, heaven is the gathering place of immortals, the gathering place of immortals and the highest power center, which is in charge of the three realms, six roads and five elements and everything. The underworld is the territory of death, but everything in the world will experience death. After death, the soul is first arrested by black and white impermanence with anklets and handcuffs, and then escorted by a cow's head and horse's face. Finally, in front of Yama right, Cui Panguan judged the good and evil before his death, and finally Yama right decided his end. After thousands of years of circulation, the image and role of the underworld have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Although no one has been to this place, through various literary and film works, people are no strangers to it, even known to women and children.

Yama

Yan Luowang is usually regarded as a subordinate of the Jade Emperor and an official sent by heaven to manage the underworld. Yan's duty is to help those dead souls reincarnate, drink Meng Po soup, eat the dishes of past lives, forget all the memories of past lives, and finally enter the six divisions in the wheel of karma and be reincarnated. Many people think that Yan comes from China fairy tales, but this is not the case.

Everything has reincarnation, which is the saying of western Buddhism. In the Shurangama Sutra of Indian Buddhism, there are clear records about the face of a cow's head and a horse's face and Luo Cha in the underworld, which are very consistent with the characters in the underworld in China's fairy tales. Buddhism was introduced into China from the Tang Dynasty. For thousands of years, stories in Buddhist scriptures have incorporated many elements of China. Just like the origin of various characters in the underworld, there is a story of China, but it was handed down from Buddhism.

So who was the ruler of hell before Buddhism spread to Middle-earth? During the Warring States period, related myths and stories believed that Tubo was the master of the underworld. This Tubo is ferocious, with horns on his head and nine ropes in his hand. It is cruel of him to eat people as food. It is not difficult to see that this is a group of monsters imagined by the ancients out of their inner fear of death.

In the Han dynasty, there was a saying of the ruler of Mount Tai. At that time, people revered nature. In the eyes of the ancients, a mountain like Mount Tai has a lot of imagination. They think that the soul will return to Mount Tai after death, so they imagine the character of the ruler of Mount Tai. In a word, before Buddhism was introduced, there were all kinds of folk myths and legends, until after Buddhism was introduced, the ruler of the underworld became the king of hell.