Is the prototype of Nezha among Taoist immortals really a foreign warrior?

The animated film "Pastime Nezha" received rave reviews as soon as it came out. So far, it has won 2 billion box office, which is another milestone of domestic animated films.

As the soul of the film, Nezha's soft and lovely image of children has won unanimous praise from the audience. However, Nezha in history did not always treat people as children. So, what was the image of Nezha in ancient times?

I. The Origin of Nezha The origin of Nezha can be traced back to the Buddhist Sutra. At that time, Nezha was an out-and-out foreign friend, whose Sanskrit name was Nala kubala.

According to the records in Buddhist scriptures, Nezha, a foreign friend, is the third prince of Cubeira, who is known as the King of Heaven. He is responsible for eradicating the darkness and evil in the world and is the patron saint of the army in Buddhism.

Because of this, Nezha's original image was fierce and tall. According to historical records, Nezha was a commander-in-chief in ancient India, with a height of 10' 6, powerful fighting capacity and scary appearance.

Such a stalwart figure is far from today's soft and lovely image of Nezha, but the spirit of punishing evil and promoting good contained in different images of Nezha has never changed.

Second, during the Tang Dynasty, China and Turkey were introduced to China, and China had increasingly close contacts with ancient India and Persia. Nezha from other places also came to China with Buddhist monks, which is recorded in Kaiyuan Biography.

In order to facilitate people in the Central Plains to better understand Nezha, a monk translated this mythical figure into "Nezha" according to Sanskrit pronunciation.

Among them, "Na" means "Nuo", which is a compound noun in ancient Chinese, meaning to drive away evil spirits and eliminate disasters, "Yi" means to frighten evil spirits, and Nezha means to curse ghosts.

After entering China, although Nezha's image was still tall and powerful at first, his appearance gradually changed with the folk communication.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Zhe wrote a poem about Nezha:

The North King has a crazy son who only knows how to worship Buddha but not his father. The Buddha knew it was stupid, but the pagoda asked his father to lift it with his left hand.

Children come to see the Buddha's head and bow down, which is slightly similar to worshipping the father. If the Buddha is excellent, it will be difficult to meet, and those who see it will smell life and death.

Why is it unique? The achievements of this industry are indelible. Since the extinction of the Buddha, it has only been held in the rivers and lakes.

It is not difficult to see from this poem that China's version of Nezha had already started to have conflicts with his father in the Song Dynasty, and Li Tianwang had also bought the pagoda, which reflected the ancient people's resistance to patriarchy.

At the same time, due to people's admiration for the famous Li Jing in the Tang and Song Dynasties, Li Jing's story and Nezha's story were merged into one by the people, forming the strongest father-son file in history, which also prompted Nezha's image to gradually become soft and lovely.

Third, the image of Nezha, like a fairy tale, has been passed down for a hundred years in an instant. The Journey to the West, one of Four Great Classical Novels in Ming Dynasty, came out, and the image of Nezha was widely circulated.

Another mythological work, The Romance of the Gods, describes Nezha in more detail. Nezha finally got rid of the Buddhist background and became a descendant of Taoist Taiyi.

Under the guidance of Taiyi real person, Nezha was skilled in martial arts and had many magic weapons, but he was forced to cut off his bones and return the meat to his parents because he killed the third prince of the Dragon King. Taiyi found Nezha's soul and helped him regenerate with lotus leaves.

This story spread so widely that all Nezha's stories were enriched and perfected later.

Today, the story of Nezha has already spread to thousands of families. This exotic mythical figure from far away finally completed the transformation of localization and became a famous China fairy, which will be worshipped by all people forever.