Beijing's holy hell

A bizarre bureaucracy

In Beijing's version, life-size sculptures of eerie divinities "work" in "offices" that flank rooms of the courtyard, to manage this life and the next, with writing brushes and tritons in hand.

They staff such divisions as the Department of Demons and Monsters, the Department of Poisoning, and the Department of Controlling Bullying and Cheating.

On a lighter note, Dongyue's divine officialdom also runs the Department of Happiness, the Department of Loyalty and various bodies that monitor, evaluate and operationalize prosperity, longevity and joy.

The labyrinthine division of labor's high resolution comes into sharper focus upon exploring the complex.

The Department of Homeless Ghosts is separate from the Department of Wandering Ghosts. The Department of Signing Documents is outside the Department of Signed Documents. And the Department of Reclaiming Life is detached from the Department of Reincarnation.

It's structured as a leviathan in which souls could - and, apparently, according to signage, sometimes do - get a bit lost.

But the legal system has an appeals process - actually several layers - in case someone's good-bad-deed ratio is miscalculated.

The signage also seeks to laud the bureaucracy's multifold checks and balances, corrective mechanisms and impartiality that prevent and rectify mistakes.