In the Buddhist faith, the Four Heavenly Kings are four guardian gods, each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world. Arhats signified a spiritual practitioner who had "laid down the burden" and realised the goal of nirvana. This set of six embroidered album leaves is part of the album depicting the Four Heavenly Kings and the Sixteen Arhats. A set of eight album leaves closely related to the present set, dated to Qing dynasty, is in the Beijing Palace collection and illustrated in Embroidered Pictures, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum 52, Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 132-135, fig. 71 (see fig.1&2).