Ox-Head
A three-pronged fork guards the shadowed gate.
A warder with Buddhist roots
Ox-Head is a bull-headed, human-bodied warder whose image appears in Chinese Buddhist descriptions of hell. The Wuku Zhangju Jing describes the powerful Abang with human hands, ox hooves, and a three-pronged iron fork. In later Chinese religion, Ox-Head and Horse-Face became an especially recognizable pair.
From hell to the magistrate's gate
Their work expanded from guarding and punishing in hell to escorting souls, apprehending escapees, and standing at underworld entrances. Temple statues and popular stories often dress them as armed attendants. Stories may even give them the temperaments of ordinary bailiffs, capable of sympathy or corruption. Ox-Head's early textual basis should be distinguished from the later establishment of the paired team. Horse-Face is also distinct from the Buddhist horse-headed protective deity Hayagriva; similar animal features do not make them the same figure.
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