Is Nezha a a Taoist deity? The origin and story of Nezha! Today, I have brought you relevant content to share with you.
Now when it comes to Nezha, many people will automatically classify him as a Taoist, thinking that he is a Taoist immortal. After all, in the romance of gods and the journey to the west, he is indeed in the Taoist school. However, the name Nezha is still very strange. After all, judging from the way ancient Chinese named it, these two words are not commonly used, and no one will call them this. This shows that Nezha is very likely not a native deity produced in ancient Taoist myths.
Nezha is an important figure in the Chinese classic “journey to the west” and “the romance of apotheosis”, and is also a mythical figure loved by the Chinese people. However, in “journey to the west”, Nezha’s Lotus body is given by the Buddha, and in “the romance of apotheosis”, Nezha’s Lotus body is given by his master Taiyi. In fact, the story of Nezha in these two novels came from a Song Dynasty book called the source of the three religions. However, tracing back to the origin, where is the origin of the legend of Nezha? Is he really a foreigner?
In the 83rd chapter of the journey to the west, there is a relatively general life story about Nezha. He is the third son of Li Jing, the king of tota. The eldest brother is called jinzha, and the second brother is called Mucha (in the romance of gods, it is Muzha). (the following words in bold are the original text, the same below). It turns out that when the king of heaven gave birth to this son, he had the word “Na” on his left palm and the word “Zha” on his right palm, so he was named Nezha. The crown prince three chao’er went to the sea to clean himself, cause trouble, step on the Crystal Palace, and catch the Jiaolong to have cramps.
The king of heaven knows that he is afraid of future troubles and wants to kill them. Nezha became angry, took the knife in his hand, cut the flesh to return the mother, cut the bone to return the father, returned the father’s blood and soul, and went to the Western Paradise to tell the Buddha. The Buddha was lecturing to the Bodhisattvas, only to hear someone shouting, “help!” At a glance, the Buddha knew that it was Nezha’s soul. He took the green lotus root as his bone and the lotus leaf as his clothes, and recited the truth of bringing the dead back to life. Then Nezha got his life. He used his divine power to subdue the demons in 96 holes. He had great powers. Later, he wanted to kill the king of heaven and avenge the evisceration. The heavenly king had no choice but to appeal to the Buddha. The Tathagata regards harmony as the most important, and gives him an exquisite and transparent relic Ruyi gold pagoda. There is a Buddha on the upper layer of the pagoda, which is gorgeous and bright. He called Nezha to take Buddha as his father and explained his grievances.
In the romance of gods, Nezha was the third son of Li Jing, the chief soldier of chentangguan in the late Shang Dynasty. The eldest brother was called jinzha, and the second brother was called Muzha. He was the reincarnation of lingzhuzi, a disciple of immortal Taiyi. His mother conceived for three years and six months and gave birth to a meat ball. The father thought it was a monster, so he split it with his sword. The baby inside was Nezha. Later, immortal Taiyi accepted him as an apprentice and named him “Nezha”. Once Nezha was playing in the East China Sea and killed Ao Bing, the third son of the Dragon King of the East China Sea. He also took his dragon tendon as a belt to give it to Li Jing. The Dragon King of the East China Sea reported to the heavenly palace and was beaten by Nezha. Ao Guang, Ao Qin, Ao run and AO Shun, the Dragon Kings of the four seas, jointly asked the Jade Emperor to come and make a confession against Li Jing and his wife. Nezha cut off his arms and abdomen, gouged out his intestines and bones, and returned them to his parents. The resurrection of Nezha’s soul was blocked by Li Jing. Immortal Taiyi created a new body for Nezha with lotus roots. Later, Nezha helped Jiang Ziya to fight against King Zhou and made many wonderful achievements.
We can see that the two stories are actually very similar. They all come from a book called “the source of the three religions and the search for gods”. On page 13 of Volume 7 of this book, it tells the story of Nezha in this way: Nezha was originally a great Luoxian driven by the Jade Emperor. He was six feet long, with a golden wheel on his head, three heads, nine eyes and eight arms, with blue clouds in his mouth, stepping on a rock, holding a law, shouting loudly. The clouds and rain came from the sky, and the universe was shining. Because there are many demon kings in the world, the Jade Emperor ordered them to come to earth, so he entrusted Li Jing, the heavenly king who was born in tota. The mother knew that her husband gave birth to the eldest son Jin Zha, the second son Mu Zha, and the handsome third child Nezha. On the fifth day of my life, I bathed in the East China Sea, stepped on the crystal hall, and turned over to the pagoda palace.
The Dragon King stepped on the temple and fought in anger. When he was in command for seven days, he was able to fight and kill Kowloon. The old dragon had no choice but to mourn the emperor. The commander knew it. He fought under the gate of heaven and the Dragon died. Unexpectedly, at the altar of God, he put up a Tathagata bow and arrow in his hand and shot the son of Shiji’s maiden to death, while Shiji launched an army. Shuai took the father’s altar to subdue the devil and killed him. My father took Shi Ji as the leader of the demons, and killed him in anger to provoke the demons. Shuai then cut his flesh and cut his bones to return to his father, and embraced the true spirit and sought perfection on the side of the Buddha. The Buddha also took it as his ability to subdue demons, so he made it by folding lotus seeds into bones, lotus roots into meat, silk into tendons, and leaves into clothes.
He was granted the secret decree of the Falun and personally accepted the three characters of Mu’s eldest son, so that he could be big or small, cross the river into the sea, and move the stars to fight; With a sound of fear, the sky collapsed; Oh, one breath, golden light covers the world; When the brick rings, the Dragon obeys the tiger; When the gun is pulled, everything turns; When the hydrangea ball is thrown, the mountain collapses and the sea splits. Therefore, all the demons, such as the ox devil king, the lion devil king, the elephant devil king, the horse head devil king, the swallow world devil king, the devil mother devil king, the nine headed devil king, the dolly devil king, the Fantian devil king, the five hundred Yaksha, and the seventy-two vultures, did everything they could, and even hit the red monkey (the sun Dasheng of Huaguo Mountain) and the evil dragon. Gai Mo is extremely smart and versatile. Therefore, at the Lingshan meeting, he thought that he was a grand master and a powerful general. The Jade Emperor was appointed the first commander-in-chief of the 36 members, the leader of the heavenly Marshal yuan, and the gate of heaven of Yongzhen.
Some Chinese and foreign scholars believe that this is the story after the legend of Nezha was sinicized. Before the Tang Dynasty, there was no story of Nezha. According to the Buddhist Scripture of the Tang Dynasty, “the northern pishantian King accompanied the army to protect the Dharma rituals”: “when he was a child, Prince Nezha held a halberd in his hand and saw the white Buddhas everywhere with his evil eyes…” volume 92 of the Taiping Guangji says: “it was very painful to pronounce the law. He often walked after the road at night and fell down the steps. Suddenly he felt that someone was holding his feet. Xuan Gu looked at him as a young man. Xuan Ji asked who his disciple was. He was here in the middle of the night. The young man said,” a very special person, that is, the prince of pishantian (Nezha) Prince. For the sake of protecting the Dharma, I have been supporting monks for a long time. Xuanlu said, “I’m a poor man, and I don’t bother the prince.”
It is obvious that the name “Nezha” is not like a Chinese name. According to the Buddhist scriptures, “Nezha” is a short translation of nalakubala in Sanskrit. However, according to the beliefs and myths of Ancient Iran and China by the Indian scholar koyaki, the name of suhrab, the tragic figure in the famous Iranian epic kings, in the ancient Persian language means “bright and shiny”, and the extended meaning is “excellent and outstanding”, which is similar to “Pearl”. Suhrab also had a strange childhood. Some Iranian scholars believe that the word “Nezha” may come from the Persian “nuzad” (newborn, child). The image of Nezha has always been a child.
Of course, these are all the words of one family. However, as an important mythical figure, Nezha’s origin can be roughly seen in this way. In the Tang Dynasty, it gradually changed from a Buddhist story to a Taoist story. By the Song Dynasty, it had been solidified into the son of Li Jing in the source of the three religions, and finally became a character in the journey to the West and the romance of the gods. Disclaimer: the above content originates from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author. If your original copyright is infringed, please inform us, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.