Mayito

Dios sabe que soy debil.

[rounni]

[adhdcountrysidenerd]

well that lasted all of 3 days

[rounni]

[adhdcountrysidenerd]

well that lasted all of 3 days

[juuxzi]

The Beloved Spirit and the Adorned Demon

[maayannarsen-ebook]

Li Ling bullying/teases Long Mian until he is a blushing mess

Long Mian : *uno reverse* Behave and we'll see. Let me do my work now. Li Ling : <3

[cringemonkey]

hi sowwyy ive been gone have some nezha

[cringemonkey]

GUESS WHAT I WATCHED

[lupinsuniverse]

Aobing waterbending

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

The Inconsistency of Nezha's Age, a Short Introduction.

Put very bluntly, Nezha’s age varies greatly depending on which story you’re reading and who’s retold it. He is not always a child or an adult depending on retelling, though my intention here is to highlight the sheer variety available first and foremost - and perhaps shine a light on the Indian dieties which may have influenced him. If these varied images are unwanted, please keep scrolling.

I happened to stumble upon a timeline error where Nezha’s brother Muzha is described to be using martial arts weapons referred to as “Hooks of Wu” which were specific to the 1800s, quite a long time after Canonization of the Gods was published, but also originating from a time period where numerous varied editions of that story were in circulation. Upwards of twenty different versions exclusive to the 19th century, actually.

The problem arises that Canonization of the Gods is meant to be occurring during the Zhou Shang conflict, that I will generously assume to be in 1045BCE, centuries before the Hooks of Wu would actually exist. It’s completely possible that the version Gu Zhizhong translated was one of these later editions as is makes no chronological sense for Muzha to have those kinds of weapons to begin with. So I have been on somewhat of a rabbit chase trying to pin down the edition Gu Zhizhong used.

Bearing such errors in mind, it’s easy to see where the confusion of Nezha’s age can come from. Before his origin story was integrated within Canonization of the Gods he would be roughly three to seven days old when his conflict with Ao Guang and the Lady Rock Demoness would occur - whereas within Canonization of the Gods he’s actually 6 or 7 years old.

Outside of that, a definitive age isn’t actually provided. Genuinely, within the scope of Chinese folklore and mythos it’s very rare to assign someone an exact age - which I do believe contributed heavily to the known discourse surrounding Nezha’s age to begin with.

He was imported as an adult from India, a child form not seeming to exist for a while until stories of Krsna were integrated to how the Chinese envisioned Nalakubara. Krsna, being an infantile disguise for the notorious Vishnu, also displays supernatural human strength and is actually successful in killing his father figure (1) — unlike Nezha.

As children, both Krsna and Nezha are able to wield heavenly bows and subjugate water spirits (2) while also being known to be dragon tamers (3). The inclusion of these stories to Nezha predates the sculpting of the Quanzhou Pagoda’s (which have been discussed briefly here) and are arguably the earliest evidence of Nezha being a dragon tamer.

Speculatively a child god combination of both Nalakubara and Krsna named Nana is likely where a majority of Nezha’s child attributes come from, based in the Scripture of the Supreme Secrets of Nana Deva - which would see translations within China during the Northern Song period of 960AD-1127AD. Nana would be described thus:

At that time there was a Deva called Nana. His appearance was exceptionally handsome, and his face beamed with a gentle smile. He was holding the sun, the moon, and various weapons. His numerous treasures and abundant jewelry shone more brightly than the sun and the moon. He made himself a luoye robe (4) from the dragons Nanda and Upananda, and a belt from the dragon Taksaka (5). He possessed the same strength as Narayana (i.e. Visnu). He too came to the assembly and sat down facing the Buddha … At that time the Buddha emanated great light from his dharma body of meditation. The light covered the entire Buddha Universe, reaching all the great evil yaksas, the various types of raksasas and pisacas (6) and all the evil dragons as far as the heavenly constellations. When the Buddhas light shone upon them they all awoke to the truth. The Buddhas light returned to him and, after encircling him three times, entered his head. It then reissued in seven colors from his brow, entering Nana-Deva’s head. When the Buddha light penetrated his head, Nana Deva displayed an enormous body like Mt. Sumeru. His facial expression alternated between terrifying anger and a broad smile. He had a thousand arms, and he was holding a skull (7) and numerous weapons. He was handsomely adorned with a tiger skin robe and skulls. [Mightily Strong] He emanated blazing light and terrifying strength. When Nana Deva displayed this divine body, the great earth shook, and all who beheld him were terrified.

Both Nana and Nezha share the same residence of Vaisravana’s palace, are known dragon tamers, and both were known to use belts. The Supreme Secrets of Nana Deva predate all known connections between Nezha and dragons, perhaps lending to Nezha many more elements than initially believed.

Though without concrete evidence stating one way or another, I can only present this information speculatively - especially as it seems difficult for some to understand that Nezha does enjoy a known adult and child form. This answer has already become quite long, so if there’s still confusion regarding this please feel free to ask for more details.

Bibliography:

(1) Goldman, “Fathers, Sons and Gurus,” pp.350, 364; Masson, “Childhood of Krsna”; Ramanujan, “The Indian ‘Oedipus’”; Silk, Riven by Lust, pp. 164-170.

(2) Harley, “Krishna’s Cosmic Victories”; Matchett, “Taming of Kaliya”.

(3) It’s worth comparing Matchett’s “Taming of Kaliya” p.116 with Canonization of the Gods 12.103. Nezha is five days old within the Ming era Sanjiao yuanliu shengdi fozu sou shen daquan, p. 326.

(4) Luoye is the Chinese term for a garment Indian men tied under the armpit, leaving their right shoulder bare. See Xuanzang, Da Tang Xiyu ji, T. 2087, 51: 876b, and Li Rongxi’s translation, Great Tang Dynasty Record, p.53.

(5) Nanda, Upananda, and Taksaka appear in various Buddhist lists of the eight dragon kings; see Foguang da cidian, pp. 6378,6405.

(6) The rakasas and pisacas are two types of Hindu ogres, who Buddhists demonology incorporated. Both types feed on human flesh. See Foguang da cidian, pp6673-6674 and 3851; Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English dictionary, pp. 871 and 628; and Strickman’s survey of Buddhist demonology in his Chinese Magical Medicine, pp. 62-68.

(7) Geboluo appears frequently within the contemporaneous Chinese translation of the Hevajra Tantra (Foshuo dabeikong zhi jin’guang dajiaowang yigui jing), no. 892 volume 18: 587-601.

(8) Zuishang mimi Nana tian jing, no. 1288, 21:358b-c. hi

[fate-magical-girls]

Great analysis! I'm gonna make a correction though, on the subject of Muzha's weapons.

Wu Gou/吴钩, the "Wu Hook", is actually not a hook weapon used in Chinese martial arts. It was the name of a type of sword made during the warring states, which then became a kenning for swords in general. Muzha just uses swords.

Chinese literature uses plenty of kennings, which is why you also see the moon referred to as the "Jade Plate/玉盘", "Pale Maiden/素娥", "Ice Wheel/冰轮", etc. In addition swords are called "Hooks of Wu/吴钩", "Dragon's Geyser/龙泉", "Blue Rainbow/青虹", etc. In FSYY, Muzha wields swords called Gan Jiang/干将 (Shield Warrior) and Mo Ye/莫邪 (No Evil). Historically, these swords were forged by a married couple during the Warring States, but again, it's used as a kenning for double swords in general.

[ryin-silverfish]

Nezha's Power Catalog: FSYY

Well, since @journeytothewestresearch has pinged me and @ruibaozha in an ask way back when, we are doing a catalog of Nezha's powers together. I'll be taking the FSYY part.

Google Doc Version

...

Disclaimer: I'm not counting powers from his treasures, such as the Wind-Fire Wheels giving him super speed and allowing him to take flight. 

I'm also excluding the invisibility talisman Taiyi drew on him in Chapter 12, since, unlike his Three-headed Eight-Armed Form, it's not a skill or permanent alteration.

...

Pre-resurrection:

Advanced physical maturity - I don't know what to call “A newborn baby being able to jump and run around right after emerging from a ball of flesh”, but this is probably it. (Chapter 12)

Unusual height - 6ft tall 7 years old kid, though this might just be a result of FSYY's weird sense of scale. (Chapter 12)

Super strength - A 7 years old kid killing Li Gen the Yaksha with a Qiankun Ring to the head likely counts as super strength. In Ao Bing's case, he drags him off the steed with the Huntian Sash first before the bonking. (Chapter 12)

Still, his later beatdown of Ao Guang and being able to draw the Qiankun Bow no one else could lift? Yeah, definitely super strength. (Chapter 13)

Five Elements Travel: Earth - After Ao Guang storms off to make a complaint to JE, Nezha uses Earth Travel to go to Taiyi's abode and ask for help. It's activated by grabbing a handful of dirt and tossing it into the air. (Chapter 12)

Travel to the Celestial Realm - After Taiyi puts an invisibility talisman on him, he goes to wait for Ao Guang under the Celestial Realm's gates. (Chapter 12)

Dream Communication - Talking to Lady Yin in her dream after his suicide. (Chapter 14)

A generic ghost power, as shown by later instances of Wen Zhong and Yin Jiao's souls warning King Zhou in his dreams, before they go into the Terrace of Investiture. (Chapter 52, Chapter 66) 

Efficiency at granting prayers - After Lady Yin builds a temple for him, he is said to be able to fulfill all the wishes of his worshippers, from granting blessings to warding off disasters.  (Chapter 14)

Materialization - After Li Jing's destruction of his temple, Nezha goes to protest to Taiyi, and the narration says that “After receiving incense and worship for half a year, Nezha is able to take a form and voice himself to some extent.” (哪吒受了半年香烟，已觉有些形声)

It is implied here that ghosts can become corporeal again via people's worship, though, from the looks of it, Nezha has only become visible and audible, and doesn't have a physical body yet at the point of the temple's destruction. (Chapter 14)

Post-Resurrection:

Unusual height (Again) - He grows from 6ft to “1 Zhang 6 Chi” after his resurrection, which is about 15-18 ft. (Chapter 14)

Spear arts - Taught by Taiyi. (Chapter 14)

Samadhi Fire - When Wenshu ties him to the Flying Dragon Pillar and orders Jinzha to whip him, he is described as “blowing out Samadhi Fire from his seven orifices” (打的三昧真火七窍齐喷). This may or may not be metaphorical. (Chapter 14)

It must also be noted that FSYY's Samadhi Fire is not the Red Boy-exclusive special attack of JTTW, and multiple Daoists from both Chan and Jie Sects are able to use it.

The best example is when Nezha and his brothers, Lei Zhenzi, Huang Tianhua, and Weihu try to burn Ma Shan with the Samadhi Fire on Jiang Ziya's orders, which doesn't work because he's a lampwick spirit, who proceeds to escape through the flames. (Chapter 63)

Lotus Body: Immunity to soul-based attacks - In Chapter 37, the narration then explains that all beings of flesh and blood possess the Three Souls and Seven Spirits, and Zhang Guifang's spell works by forcefully scattering them. 

Nezha, because of his lotus body, does not have souls, thus granting him immunity to the attack. 

This will become a recurrent thing. Here's a list of all the soul-based treasures and spells that fail against Nezha:

Zhang Guifang's Unhorsing Spell (Chapter 37)

Zheng Lun's nose beams (Chapter 57)

Chijing Zi/Yin Hong's Yin-Yang Mirror (Chapter 60)

Guangcheng Zi/Yin Jiao's Soulfell Bell (Chapter 65)

Qiu Yin's Red Pearl (Chapter 74)

Fa Jie's banner (Chapter 79)

Long Anji's Paralyzing Ring (Chapter 79)

Bian Ji's Spectral White Bone Banner (Chapter 84)

And here's a collection of his sassy responses: 

“Bastard, I'm staying on these wheels and you ain't calling me off them!” (Against Zhang Guifang)

“Dude, are you sick or something, blowing your nose at me like that?” (Against Zheng Lun)

“Idiot, it's just a red orb. What's so special about it, huh?” (When Qiu Yin tells him to take a look at the pearl)

“Your ring sucks, check out mine!” (To Long Anji, right before bonking him with the Qiankun Ring and killing him)

Lotus Body: Resistance to physical attacks - Spells can't knock Nezha off his wheels, but weapons like Yang Sen's Sky-opening Pearl, Wen Zhong and Zhao Gongming's whips, and Guangcheng Zi/Yin Jiao's Heaven-turning Sealstone can. (Chapter 38, Chapter 42, Chapter 47, Chapter 63)

However, he doesn't seem to suffer any lasting injuries afterwards. The only non-magical/poisonous injury that sticks for a while is some bruises, from getting hit in the face by Deng Chanyu's Five Light Stones. (Chapter 53)

Lotus Body: Immunity to diseases - When Lv Yue puts his plague pills into Xi Qi's water supply, the entire city falls victim to the sorcerous plague, save for Nezha and Yang Jian, because of the former's lotus body and the latter's Ninefold Mystic Arts. (Chapter 58)

Later, Yu Hualong's five sons create five bushels of poisonous poxes, which are spilled all over the Zhou camp from the air, giving everyone magical, five-colored smallpox.

Once again, Nezha is immune, and Yang Jian, knowing that the Yu brothers are up to something, gets the hell out of dodge before the pox spell is unleashed. Cue Nezha complaining of them “Pulling a Lv Yue again”. (Chapter 81)

Immunity to the Soul-Killing Banner (戮魂旛) - The treasure in question belongs to Yu Hua: when raised, it unleashes/turns into multiple streams of black smoke that covers the victim and whisks them away. (Chapter 32)

Subsequently, he tries to use it against Nezha, but Nezha just grabs the smokes, seizes the treasure, and stuffs it into his Leopard Skin Sack. This may or may not fall under the umbrella of “Immunity to Soul-based Attacks”. (Chapter 33)

Counterspell: Pearl Attack - Feng Lin can blow a cloud of smoke out of his mouth, which contains a bowl-sized red pearl that functions as a projectile weapon. Nezha just points his finger at the smoke, and it fizzles out. (Chapter 36)

Supernatural endurance: Red Sand Formation - One of the Ten Formations, it contains three bushels of red sand, which can create a giant sandstorm that reduces any humans and immortals who enter the formation to powder. (Chapter 44)

Nezha and Lei Zhenzi are assigned to protect King Wu, the only person who can break the formation…because Fate Says So, but is also Fated to get trapped in there for 100 days. So naturally, Nezha and Lei Zhenzi get stuck in there alongside him. (Chapter 49) 

When Old Man of the South Pole breaks the formation, Nezha and Lei Zhenzi are fine, but King Wu is already dead and has to be resurrected via a magical pill. (Chapter 51)

I'm not putting this under Resistance to Physical Attacks because, unlike the weapons, I'm unsure as to whether the red sand is magical in nature.

Resistance to poison: Blood-melting Knife (化血神刀) - Limited, since Nezha is still severely injured and incapacitated by Yu Hua's new treasure (made by his master Yu Yuan). However, for mortals, a wound from the knife is pretty much an insta-kill. (Chapter 74)

Three-headed, Eight-Armed Form - After Nezha is injured by Yu Hua's knife, he's taken back to Taiyi's abode to recover. When he's ready to leave, Taiyi offers him three cups of wine and three “fire jujubes”, which gives him his iconic multi-headed and armed transformation.

Unlike in JTTW, FSYY's Nezha has 8 arms instead of 6. Presumably, the 2 extra ones are used to wield the Yin-Yang Swords, the pair of weapons Taiyi gives to him alongside the Nine Fire Dragon Bell Cover…which never get used afterwards.

Upon switching to the multi-headed and limbed form, his appearance also changes into a blue-faced, red-haired, fanged monstrosity, which is not too dissimilar to the fierce guardian deities of esoteric Buddhism. (Chapter 76, Chapter 79)

Also, amusing reaction to his new transformation: “Dangit master, how am I supposed to use all these arms? They are like ugly branches on a tree.” (Chapter 76)

Sagehood in Flesh (肉身成圣) - Nezha is said to attain the status post-war, alongside his brothers, Li Jing, Lei Zhenzi, Wei Hu, and Yang Jian. 

Basically, immortality and godhood, but it doesn't require you to die in Ancient China's Bloodiest Bureaucracy Recruitment Program first. (Chapter 100)

[ejaysstuff]

Doing a post compiling the dragon bound stake and the hooks of wu

First image is more accurate to what Muzha's hooks of wu looks like:

Jinzha's dragon bound stake! It's a weapon given to him by his shifu and was also used to subdue Nezha when he tried to kill their dad. Not sure if this is the original or a design of it tho

All of these can be found on the baike article links I reblogged so if you want to know more you can find them here or on @ruibaozha

@meowganne

[ejaysstuff]

UPDATE!! Here's how the dragon stake (遁龙桩) looks like in action:

No wonder nezha was like "are you fr" when he was asked to go see his master,,,

And an interesting unintentional similarity..

[journeytothewestresearch]

Bad FSYY English translation

The four-volume Library of Chinese Classics bilingual edition of Creation/Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen yanyi, c. 1620) published in 2000 is the only full-length translation of the story available in English. I've had a PDF of the entire set archived on my external blog since May of 2020. It is serviceable for the general reader, but it is not great for hobbyist researchers like myself.

I'd like to provide an example showing how it is not very accurate and/or comprehensive. Chapter 12 describes how young Nezha inadvertently causes havoc in the underwater realm when washing himself in a river with a powerful magic sash. This eventually leads to Li Gen (李艮), a yaksha water-spirit soldier, to attack him with an ax. Gu Zhizhong's (2000) translation reads:

Nezha, naked and empty-handed, dodged the vicious blow, raised his Universal Ring and struck Li Gen on the head. How could the Yaksha withstand the magic weapon from Fairy Primordial! His skull broke open and he fell dead on the river bank (Gu, 2000, vol. 1, p. 239).

However, the full Chinese reads:

Standing there naked, Nezha dodged the advancing warrior's attack and upraised the Universal Ring in his right hand. This treasure was originally bestowed by the Jade Emptiness Palace of Mt. Kunlun to the Perfected Man of the Grand Monad to secure the items of his Golden Light Cave. How could the yaksha withstand the magic weapon as it struck downward on his head? His brains exploded from the blow, and he fell dead on the shore. 哪吒正赤身站立，見夜叉來得勇猛，將身躲過，把右手套的乾坤圈望空中一舉。此寶原係崑崙山玉虛宮所賜太乙真人鎮金光洞之物，夜叉那裏經得起，那寶打將下來，正落在夜叉頭上，只打的腦漿迸流，即死於岸上。 (I don't consider myself a translator, so please forgive any errors.)

You can see that quite a bit of information was left out. This happens throughout the entire novel. This makes me angrier the more that I think about. Why even bother to translate something if you are only going to paraphrase or even skip over passages? It seems like a pointless enterprise.

Source:

Gu, Z. (2000). Creation of the Gods (Vols. 1-4). Beijing: New World Press.

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

A Note on Recent Controversy: The Gender of Nezha

This argument isn’t particularly new to me, but seeing as it isn’t going away and seems bound to repeat itself, this is my own argument on those who assign Nezha to be a transfem lesbian for completely arbitrary reasons. I do discuss briefly the existence of female Nezha’s within other franchises. Please skip this post if this doesn’t interest you.

As this is a point of drama on Twitter at the moment, Nezha is not a girl and is never stated to be one within the core of his known mythology. Moreover, I need to clarify this is specifically about LMK Nezha as this sort of “drama” doesn’t seem to exist outside of how LMK portrays him.

Arguably the only thing people genuinely cling to in the case of LMK Nezha is his long hair, pink armor and the lotus flower skirt. There is no problem if this is a personal headcanon while being fully aware that it isn’t true, but many have decided to push this as factual — similarly to what people repeat Nezha’s age to be. The kind of disgusting vitriolic behavior that is shown by other people should be noted and avoided.

Do such feminine features like the lotus skirt immediately mean that these Nezha’s are women? Should we dismiss that within Confucian standards the cutting of one’s hair is a great disrespect to your body but also the parents that gave it to you? Is it a desired normalcy to make assumptions over the gender identity of a god? If you so badly want a female Nezha, such a thing already exists within other franchises.

This has had me reconsider the primary motivation here for fans to boldly parade this misinformation around, but also the degree of disrespect involved. For a fandom that’s so obsessed with being respectful and calling out other’s disrespectful behavior, it really likes to be disrespectful in as many ways possible.

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

The file cannot be accessed. I have an account but it keeps insisting that I must have a free account. I don't know if others have the same problem.

My mistake!

I had discussed this briefly with someone who helps maintain the archive of books, the link did not have such a problem in the past. What we have at the moment is HTML text of what would have been in the book, unfortunately any associated images are lost in this format.

Full text of "A Chinese Bestiary"

Additionally, I have decided to simply place my aforementioned PDF onto Archive.org which may be read as well. It's a massive file, so give it a moment or so to load. Many apologies for the inconvenience!

Richard EStrassberg 2002 AChinese Bestiary Strange Creatures Fromthe G ( 1) : Richard E. Strassberg : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming :

English Language translation of Mountain and Seas Classics.

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

Do you know of a downloadable pdf of The Classic of Mountains and Seas?

Hello!

Yes absolutely. My friend @the-monkey-ruler has kept a reliable archive of these kinds of media where you don’t need to pay to access them.

Fantastic creatures of the mountains and seas : a Chinese classic : Sun, Jiankun, author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet A

xvii, 356 pages : 26 cm

I have a different PDF called A CHINESE BESTIARY Strange Creature’s from the GUIDEWAYS THROUGH MOUNTAINS AND SEAS that I can’t attach to this answer. If you are comfortable and interested in this other version, please reach out directly and I can arrange sending the full pdf to you.

Here is a nine headed phoenix from a Qing edition

Nine tailed fox, companion of the Queen Mother of the West

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

"Purportedly it’s from an excerpt where Erlang is pretending to be a concubine" sorry for my confusion but was this line supposed to be in response to the screenshot where someone said that "erlang is technically canonically genderfluid"? if so then thank you for answering the question i've had since the day i saw that tweet get posted... considering WHO made that tweet, i had my Doubts™ as to the accuracy of that claim. i know you're primarily a Nezha blog but would you be able to provide a little more context/direct me to where i can find more context abt Erlang pretending to be a concubine?

I must disclose that I do not have positive relationships with anyone featured in those screenshots. There are many reasons, which I will gladly explain in private.

I had to ask a few friends about this, as my expertise isn’t with Er’lang, but this is what I was able to discover. During the opera The Monkey King Er’lang does disguise himself as a widow to trick Sun Wukong which results in an attempted assault of Sun Wukong onto Er’lang. However, during the opera Havoc in Heaven there is a lot of sexual innuendo involved between the two; especially as Sun Wukong has Er’lang straddled by the waist and being hit repeatedly in his rear. It can be read here.

To the best of my knowledge this is the only incident where Er’lang presents himself as a woman, and to the extent of what I know any other cases of this don’t exist. Moreover, the existence of this singular incident doesn’t contribute to the label of “misogynist” and is moreso reflective of the humour and non-serious nature Chinese opera can sometimes be - even if the jokes and gags didn’t age well.

EDIT: Within chapter 54 of Canonization of the Gods Er’lang disguises himself as a Zhou concubine to trick Tu Xingsun, someone who had snuck into the Zhou camp to capture and assassinate King Wu. As detailed below:

I really don’t know why these claims exist or why anyone has chosen to make a problem out of what is, at it’s core, nothing. It’s probably indicative of maturity and ability or lack thereof to consume and criticize media from China that has not undergone any substantial amendments to its contents.

This really feels like a “nothing sandwich” and people scrambling for something to accuse others of for the sake of appearing morally superior — even if the argued point doesn’t actually exist.

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

Wait, what is the context that if you like Erlang it makes you a misogynist? Is it about his sister??? 😭 I know that lmktwt hates Erlang with passion even though Macaque does things that are more questionable in the show and in the book, but are they seriously saying that? Really??

This is all I could gather on the situation. I’d rather not discuss this further publicly so I invite you to talk further in DMs if you’d like. This is the first time I’m hearing people be so adamantly upset about Er’lang as a whole, and it doesn’t surprise me the Lego Monkie Kid fandom is behind this.

Purportedly it’s from an excerpt where Erlang is pretending to be a concubine but I don’t see the connection or problem here.

EDIT: this excerpt is from Chapter 54 of Canonization of the Gods wherein Er’lang is pretending to be a concubine to prevent the kidnapping and assassination of King Wu.

If anything it proves the overall ignorance of the fandom on so many varying levels. I’m so tired.

[ruibaozha-deactivated20250614]

I am presently preparing for final exams and wrapping up my final case studies for this semester, but I would like to share an opera that features Nezha outside of the widely known Havoc in Heaven where he is in combat with Sun Wukong. Today, we are going to discuss the opera Chentangguan (陳塘關), known also as The Birth of Nezha (哪吒出世) and Nezha Fights the Sea (哪吒鬧海).

The plot of this opera closely follows the origin story of Nezha as is featured within Canonization of the Gods. A defined year for when this opera was initially performed is unclear, though it was written by Xiao Rongchun and appeared within a registry of operas that featured a 'celebratory ascension' in 1824; an online record of this appears here from the Opera Culture Network.

Outside of Peking Opera, Qin Opera, Hui Opera, and Szechuan Opera also regard the performance as Nezha Fights the Sea whereas Hengqi Opera regards it as Golden Pagoda. The opera is present within Gui Opera, Hunan Opera, Chenhe Opera, and Handiao Erhuang (A form of folk opera exclusive to Shaanxi Province originating in 1807) though it is not as prominent.

This opera alongside it's contemporary art forms also focused heavily on the martial arts aspect of Chinese Opera in regards to Nezha and the varying methods his story was retold. Within this post is a brief taste of how this opera was performed, Nezha himself being played by Xu Yingying in this recording.

The full hour long performance can be found here, though it is not nearly as cinematic and was recorded from a considerable distance.