The work is part of a pair of hanging scrolls depicting the Leaders of the Eighteen Departments of Hell. They were probably originally hung in a temple on either side of a central cult image, probably of the fifth king of hell, Yanluo wang. This king was assisted by the Eighteen Leaders of Hell with the Horse Headed Demon and the Ox Headed Demon as their main figures at his sides. Here the side with the Horse Headed Demon is depicted.
In popular Buddhism, which incorporated many elements of Daoism in China, the idea of ten hell kings as judges developed in the Tang period (618–907), whose tribunals the deceased had to pass through every seventh day in the first 49 days after death, then on the hundredth day, one year and finally three years after death. Depending on the verdict, they could be released into a rebirth already on the seventh day after death if they had led a good life. Otherwise, they were assigned to one of eighteen graded hells by the relevant hell judge, depending on the severity of their misdemeanours in life.
Such religious representations were the object of worship and invocation in a temple and as such not considered works of art according to Chinese aesthetics, so they were not collected by art lovers and are therefore largely lost.