Nezha- Chinese GodDeity"Marshal of the Central Altar"

The Flesh Ball

Lady Yin carried her third son for three years and six months. When she finally gave birth at Chentang Pass, what emerged was not a child but a ball of flesh. Li Jing, the garrison commander, believed it was a demon. He struck it with his sword. The ball split open, and a boy stepped out wearing golden bracelets and a red sash, already walking and speaking.

The Taoist immortal Taiyi Zhenren descended and claimed the child as his disciple. He named him Nezha and gave him the Universe Ring, which struck with the force of thunder, and the Red Armillary Sash, which could set the seas ablaze.

The Dragon Prince

At seven, Nezha went to bathe in the Eastern Sea near Chentang Pass. When he stirred the water with his sash, the vibrations shook the Dragon King Ao Guang's underwater palace. Ao Guang sent his patrol yaksha to investigate. Nezha struck the yaksha down with the Universe Ring. Ao Guang dispatched his third son, Ao Bing, in full armor.

The young dragon prince rose from the waves in his true form. Nezha cast the Red Armillary Sash into the sky, where it blazed with heavenly fire and wrapped around Ao Bing. Nezha killed him and ripped out his tendons to make a belt for his father. He brought them home as a gift, not understanding what he had done.

Ao Guang flew toward heaven to petition the Jade Emperor, but Nezha intercepted him on the road. The child forced the Dragon King to shrink into a small snake and hid him in his sleeve. Ao Guang was not so easily silenced. He gathered his brothers from the other three seas, and together they confronted Li Jing, threatening to flood the world if justice was not done.

Flesh to His Mother, Bones to His Father

Rather than let his family be destroyed for his crime, Nezha took a sword and cut himself apart. He pared his flesh and returned it to his mother. He scraped his bones and returned them to his father. A child's body destroyed by its own hands, the debts of blood repaid in blood.

The Lotus Body

Nezha's spirit appeared to his mother in dreams, begging her to build a temple where offerings could rebuild his form. She did so in secret. For a time, his spirit grew stronger. Then Li Jing found the temple and burned it to the ground.

Taiyi Zhenren intervened. He built a new body from lotus roots for bones and lotus leaves for flesh. Nezha returned, more powerful than before, and Taiyi gave him the Wind Fire Wheels, discs of flame and wind that let him fly and leave trails of fire across the sky.

The resurrected Nezha pursued his father to kill him. Only the Burning Lamp Buddha reconciled them. Li Jing received a golden pagoda that could suppress Nezha's power, and the boy was bound to obey. Father and son entered the celestial hierarchy together. Li Jing became the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King.

The Warrior

In the Fengshen Yanyi, Nezha fought alongside Jiang Ziya for the Zhou dynasty against the Shang. His lotus body made him immune to spells that would have killed a mortal warrior, and in his three-headed, six-armed battle form he wielded all his weapons at once.

In the Journey to the West, he was among the heavenly forces sent against Sun Wukong during the Monkey King's rebellion. Nezha shifted to his six-armed form and met the Monkey King blow for blow. Sun Wukong's iron staff knocked aside the Universe Ring, and Nezha fell back. Even the Third Lotus Prince was not enough.