Scroll Painting of Sha Shen - Deities or Spirits of Obstacles (三界中之煞神眾)

In the following 4 Scrolls, they showed the Deities & Spirits that are being appointed to look into the issues of giving obstacles & testing for the Mortals.

In Chinese, we addressed them as Sha Shen (煞神), meaning Deities or Spirits of Mis-fortune or Bad-luck.

In Chinese Religions, there are some Rituals/Ceremonies (such as Taoism) which are being planned and practiced to invite such Deities or Spirits away, in-order to allow the Deities of Prosperity & Luck to give blessings on the Mortals.

In Big Rituals/Ceremonies, such scrolls are being used to show the existence of such Deities or Spirits.

In Scroll 1 (shashen_01), you can see Deities or Spirits that are appointed to give obstacles on Yearly & Monthly basis. Besides that, some other Earth Deities are also included. such Earth Deities are there to prevent things from happened normally (年月禁神/岁煞官符/土侯土伯).

In Scroll 2 (shashen_02), you can see Deities or Spirits that are appointed to give sicknesses and diseases or even, grabbing of one’s soul. Besides that, some Dragon Deities are included. Such Dragon Deities are there to give blessings on the people living in the area or in one particular house (吊客丧门/大耗小耗/鎮宅龙神).

In Scroll 3 (shashen_03), you can see the 8 Deities or Spirits that are appointed to avoid good lucks from getting near to one self (鶴神及七煞神众).

In Scroll 4 (shashen_04), you can see the different Generals that are appointed to create un-necessary chaotic for the Mortals, such Generals are White Tiger, Black Crow, Yellow Leopard, etc (黄幡/豹尾/白虎/青羊/乌鸦将军等).

Last of all, usually such Deities or Spirits names can be seen in Fortune Telling Manuals or Yearly Luck Divination Explanations.