One of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of the Ten Kings of Hades and the Eighteen Levels appears in the early chapters of the 15th-century novel Journey to the West, by Wu Ch'eng-en.
有趣的是，最早也是最詳細出現十殿閻羅、十八層地獄說法的，是在明朝吳承恩所著的小說「西遊記」。