Trung Ac (Trừng Ác)

Vietnamese. ‘Punishing Evil’. Name of the Judge of the Hells, a Vietnamese-Taoist deity, that also serves as a kind of dharmapala. In iconography, he is usually depicted seated on a lion and holding a kuandao-like (fig.) long-handled weapon in one hand and sometimes a green or jade-coloured, somewhat pagoda-shaped rock in the other hand (fig.). He is the counterpart of Thien Khuyen, the Vietnamese Judge of the Heavens (fig.). See also Si Tian Wang. 回