According to ideas from Taoism,[citation needed] Buddhism[1][2][3] and traditional Chinese folk religion, Diyu is a purgatory that serves to punish and renew spirits in preparation for reincarnation.

[citation needed] Some Chinese folk religion planchette writings, such as the Taiwanese novel Journeys to the Under-World, say that new hells with new punishments (for instance, punishments for sins involving reckless driving) or existing hells with modernized punishments (such as the "Hand-searing Hell" (烙手指小地獄) initially used clothes irons to sear the hands of sinners, but now modernized their punishment by searing the sinners' hands on iron rails tied with springs) are created as the world changes, the presence of Centre for Making-up of Recitations (補經所) to house priests, monks and taoists who recite scriptures in exchange for material returns but reciting the wrong punctuation or skipped certain scriptures, and that there is a City of Innocent Deaths (枉死城) designed to house those who died with grievances that have yet to be redressed, such as suicidal, accidental and abortion deaths.

[6][7] Other terminology related to Diyu includes: The concept of the "Ten Courts of Yanluo" (十殿閻羅) began after Chinese folk religion was influenced by Buddhism.

All will go to Diyu after death but the period of time one spends in Diyu is not forever – it depends on the severity of the sins one committed (grave sins such as unfilial acts, rape, and debauchery will be sentenced to Avīci forever instead, while sinners involved in pornographic materials production will be sent to various hells and finally to Avīci until all such materials ceased to exist).

[8][9][10][11][12][13] The eighteen hells vary from narrative to narrative but some commonly mentioned tortures include: being steamed; being fried in oil cauldrons; being sawed into half; being run over by vehicles; being pounded in a mortar and pestle; being ground in a mill; being crushed by boulders; being made to shed blood by climbing trees or mountains of knives; having sharp objects driven into their bodies; having hooks pierced into their bodies and being hung upside down; drowning in a pool of filthy blood; being left naked in the freezing cold; being set aflame or cast into infernos; being tied naked to a bronze cylinder with a fire lit at its base; being forced to consume boiling liquids; tongue ripping; eye gouging; teeth extraction; heart digging; disembowelment; skinning; being trampled, gored, mauled, eaten, stung, bitten, pecked, etc., by animals such as mice, wasps, maggots, and leeches.