#nezha 2019

[ruibaozha]

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

[asavt]

Something I wanted to try and do that I've been working on these past few days.

Some months(? ago I watched Nezha(2019) and after listening to FightSong like... a thousand times I was plagued with ✨thoughts✨! Wanted to try to do something like a "fake" project of sorts...

Some more thoughts about this under read more~

Explaining a bit more in depth of the idea because it's been plagging my mind for some time now (it's been marinating there and every time I listened to that song it would just gain more flavor).

Post-movie, canon divergence I guess?? Maybe?? Does it counts as an AU?? idk. The main points are that

1: Ao Bing technically betrayed his family and I was wondering if he would ever try to go back with them (would they or his father even allowed), I'm guessing not. I'm taking the path of him never going back home.

2: Nezha, after years have passed and people around him passed away (I guess), decides to try and use his other form (the one where he??? looks like a teen??? even when he's like three in the movie??? deities are confusing sometimes tbh). He's been practicing his control over this form, so far it's good. Sometimes he will revert back to the child-like one too.

3: It's been CENTURIES. Things changed, the place where they live would be closer to a modern-time city.

4: They don't allineate with anything. Like, no heaven, no dragons no demons. They go around doing what they believe would be right.

I am so willing to find a way to do a short animation with the song if this recieves enough attention. When would it be done or how clean would it look is another thing... But I would like to try if you guys are interested!

Also I should do this with other thoughts I have too. I have too many...

[heavensofficialfloutist]

old meme, new hyperfixation

[artedegwen]

a mesh between Nezha Reborn’s Monkey King & Monkey King Reborn :) in which the mask glamours Mk reborns whole physique as Nezha Reborns. if that makes sense lol

[kiyovazquez]

Re amo a este Wukong, fue el primer Wukong que conocí jaja

[env1ousevee]

[ Who are you Fighting for? ]

LEGO Monkie Kid & NeZha 2019

(Fanfiction when? Hehe🎀)

[pillowdrawz]

Into THE NEZHAVERSE LET'S GOO

I honestly love LmK nezha.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Nezha and Ao Bing (Nezha 2019) meet Yunxiang and F***boi (Nezha Reborn).

Nezha thinks his reincarnation is pretty cool, and while Yunxiang doesn't hate the kid, he has a moment of "Oh. So that's why people hated me."

The dragon boys, on the other hand....

(ノ｀Д´)/ ヽ( `皿´ )ﾉ

Little gremlin 2019!Nezha is just asking a million questions cus;

2019!Nezha: "Your armor looks kinda dorky- whoa! There's vents for your flames!? And you have a metal horse-carriage-thing that goes so fast you could die if it stops wrong!? I changed my mind - future me is so cool!!" Yunxiang: "Um... thanks?? Sweet buddha no wonder the gods had their hands full with this kid."

(meanwhile with the dragons)

Reborn!Ao Bing: "Disgusting. How we ever lost to that demon is beyond me." 2019!Ao Bing: "...that demon is my best and only friend." Reborn!Ao Bing: "Wow... past me must be a real loser to have a monkfish-shaped 3 year old as his only friend." Both Dragons: *loud cat-fight noises ensue*

2019!Ao Bing was raised by a big cat demon after all. He also wouldn't take kindly to Reborn!Ao Bing's treatment of the kitten (im still sad about that wtf) in the New Gods film.

For the extended Wukongverse too...

Nezha: "Why is your Monkey King old and gray?" Yunxiang: "What does the Monkey King look like to you?" Nezha: "Tall and ginger. And with a horse's face!" Dasheng, from the next room with the other SWKs: "HEY! I heard that!"

The different Ao Guangs are also fighting cus

2019!Ao Guang: "You had the control over nearly a kingdom, and yet that wasn't enough!? My people cannot even leave the seafloor due to the burden Heaven placed upon us!" NewGods!Ao Guang: "Skill issue." (another cat-fight breaks out) 2023!Dragon King, watching the fight: "I am totally not associating with those guys. Both have terrible aesthetics" LMK!Ao Guang and 2000sCartoon!Ao Guang: *wondering if they're the only normal dragons here*

Theres a def arguement over the different parents of the Nezhas who's the better father.

Yunxiang's dad kinda wins? Even though his kid is just a reincarnation. He's a little harsh, but he raised two sons on a mechanic's salary alone, and tended to one while he was in hospital. Kinda reminds me of Red Foreman.

[pearllikeme]

I love both adaptations of him

[fei-ren-zai]

Crossover art celebrating Ne Zha (2019) breaking Chinese box office records for Chinese animation

source: Fei Ren Zai Weibo

[pandoa]

top 3 dragon boys i would like to headpat but can't because of the fictional barrier between us (in no particular order)

1. haku — spirited away

2. ao bing — ne zha (2019)

3. malleus draconia — twisted wonderland

that is all. thank you for listening.

[ruibaozha]

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.

[asavt]

more of the Modern-time AU... I was listening to fightsong again

Note on the second drawing: Nezha is the one who comes up with the explication on the marks

[heavensofficialfloutist]

i'm laughing so hard this is so stupid

[mangshadow]

nezha 2 when

[monkeyqueen22]

Art credit go to: ムギ/pixiv