Ne Zha's evolution from an Indian god to the child warrior deity of today

Among the myriad myths of China, the figure of Ne Zha is a unique character as he is one of only a few "child gods." With the "Ne Zha 2" fever gripping the country, the discussion on the animation blockbuster's protagonist and its archetype has gone viral.

Shanghai Daily talked to Dr Bi Xuling, director of the Folklore Studies Office at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who has been studying Ne Zha for years, and her research has found how the image of Ne Zha has changed over the past millennium, and how the change was an epitome of its social background.

"Ne Zha is a mysterious character to me," Bi said. "On the one hand, he is a child, yet on the other hand, people believed that he is an almighty warrior so that he was, and still is in some areas, worshipped to exorcise and suppress evil. And while he is regarded as a Taoist deity, he has a name with ancient Indian characteristics. The complication makes him interesting."

The current most well-known Ne Zha story goes like this: Ne Zha was the third son of Li Jing, the commander of Chentang Pass in the late Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC). His mother was pregnant for three years and six months before giving birth to a fleshy ball, from which Ne Zha jumped out.

He later killed a soldier of the Undersea Dragon Palace and then the third prince of the Dragon King, and committed suicide when the Dragon King sought revenge. Later, he was resurrected by his mentor using lotus roots.

Ne Zha indeed is a deity introduced from ancient Indian religious mythology. His prototype is Nalakūvara, the third son of the Northern Heavenly King in Buddhism. During the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), when Buddhism prevailed in China, the character was introduced first to regions west of China and then on the mainland.

Back then there was a kingdom called Khotan (232 BC-AD 1006), located in what is today's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the king and people there worshipped the Northern Heavenly King, and after Khotan become a garrison of Tang, the faith was introduced into China and Nalakūvara was known as "the Third Prince."

"However, at that time, Ne Zha, serving as a Buddhist Dharma protector, bore little resemblance to the familiar image of Ne Zha as we know today," Bi pointed out.

"He was neither youthful nor equipped with the gears we are familiar with, but rather appeared as an angry Buddhist god holding a pagoda, halberd, and staff."

Amid deepening dissemination of Buddhist beliefs in China, the image and deeds of Ne Zha underwent tremendous transformations over the next several centuries. He had already adopted the appearance of a young boy in folklore during the late Tang and early Northern Song Dynasty (AD 960-1127), and then started having his "warrior-image" of "three heads and six arms."

Meanwhile, during this period of time the crucial plot of the current Ne Zha myths appeared, where he "dismembered his bones to return to his father and dissected his flesh to return to his mother, and was reincarnated from lotus roots." And also during this period, his father became Li Jing, a Tang Dynasty general deified in Taoism rather than an Indian Buddhist god.

But it was not until several centuries later that the myth of Ne Zha finally evolved into a complete narrative.

The "Complete Collection of Divine Origins and Deities," a book on the biographies of deities and immortals compiled in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), contains a nearly complete version of the Ne Zha myth, and novel "Journey to the West" and "Investiture of the Gods" further rewrote and expanded the story, laying the foundation for Ne Zha's image as a child warrior deity.

The story of Ne Zha always climaxed with him being forced to gouge out his flesh and extract his bones to return to his parents. But in the beginning, this part of the tale didn't have anything to do with parent-child conflicts but was a manifestation of Buddhist concepts.

"In the beginning, this was an expression of the Buddhist idea of abandoning the physical body for the purpose of better cultivation," explained Bi. "Some books of the era read, 'Ne Zha separated his flesh and returned it to his mother, separated his bones and returned them to his father, and then revealed his true form, exercising great spiritual power to teach his parents the Dharma'."

The transformation of the Buddhist cultivation narrative of "separating flesh and bones to return to parents" into a parent-child conflict chronicle is related to the significant adjustment and localization process that Buddhism underwent in China regarding attitudes toward family relationships because its original concept of "leaving home to pursue liberation from samsara" was at variance with traditional Confucian values that emphasized loyalty and filial piety.

"To adapt to Chinese society, Buddhism actively absorbed Confucian ideas, especially the concept of filial piety, and many Buddhist scriptures were reinterpreted," said Bi. "The story of Ne Zha was an example. Its cultivation narrative of 'separating flesh and bones to return to parents' evolved into a narrative of self-sacrifice to protect his parents under the norm of 'filial piety'."

But then the question arises: what event led Ne Zha to make this self-sacrifice? To explain the cause of the father-son conflict, the Ne Zha mythology introduced the traditional Chinese theme of the naughty child.

Discussions on the Ne Zha mythology often mention the theme of "heroes emerge from youth." But strictly speaking, Ne Zha in the Ming Dynasty was not merely a hero but first a naughty child who caused trouble everywhere before growing into a young hero willing to take responsibility. Therefore, a more appropriate summary of the Ne Zha mythology theme is "the naughty child becoming a hero."

In Ming Dynasty novels, Ne Zha was a "troublesome kid" with no remorse for killing a neighbor's servant and son and later he kills a sea guard and then the dragon prince Ao Bing because of the trouble he caused – he quaked the entire undersea palace by playing his magic gears on the sea.

Ne Zha's path to growth goes through trials and tribulations. When the Dragon King seeks vengeance on his parents, he decides to sacrifice for them. This is his first growth point: to learn to abide by rules and take responsibility.

His second growth occurs when he goes after his own father for destroying his statue in a temple. He vows to kill his father yet is subdued by the Lamp Buddha with a gold pagoda. Although not willingly, he learns to forgive.

In contemporary times, the legend doesn't stop to evolve with animation, film, and television. One of the most successful works is the animated movie "Prince Ne Zha's Triumph Against the Dragon King," produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1979. The movie changed the "naughty boy" part, making the Dragon King an evil antagonist. The movie also provided a more complex and reasonable explanation for Ne Zha's suicide, which includes resentment and grievances toward Li Jing as well as the greater cause of protecting the people of the entire city.

"From Ne Zha's story we can see that mythology does not belong only to a primitive or early culture. Mythology is able to evolve with time," Bi noted.

"The very core of mythical stories is a magnificent narrative about human morality, spirit, and ideals, and how they change and develop in different eras."