In recent years, there have been many fairy tale dramas in the TV drama market, basically one on fire. At first, I liked to watch it, but I became less and less interested later, because this type of TV series has changed from the original group drama to the current male and female protagonist love idol drama. The main thing is that it has now become mass production. Aesthetic unity: all young men and women, wearing uniform uniforms, long hair fluttering funeral style; The plot is similar: the heavenly immortals are mainly in love, the side business is to fight monsters, and then they have to die to save the so-called three realms of sentient beings; Actor acting: Alas... There is nothing to say.
In fact, the main reason why I don't watch it is that although it has become a specialty of Chinese film and television, it has gradually departed from our real cultural tradition, and the immortals in our traditional culture are rarely found in these TV series.
Chinese mythological fairy dramas cannot escape the two masterpieces "Romance of the Gods" and "Journey to the West". Although it is a different story, there are still many of the same characters, which can be seen to be from the same mythological world. And the characters that appear in it, the most famous are Nezha and Yang Jian, so today we will talk about Nezha.
Nezha, son of Li Jing, the commander-in-chief of Chen Tangguan. From the birth of a meat ball, he quickly grew into the appearance of a teenager. On weekdays, comb two grab buns, bib belly, wear a lotus leaf miniskirt, bare legs, and at most add a lotus shawl. All year round, it seems to be dressed coolly. This kid made trouble in the East China Sea, killed the third prince of the Dragon King, and then was forced to commit suicide. Master Taiyi Zhenren used lotus flowers as a body to revive him and gave him many magic weapons. In the end, he became Jiang Ziya's forerunner and made great contributions to King Wu's felling cause.
Nezha in the memory of the seventies
This well-known story, mainly from the "Romance of the Gods", is almost the standard biography of Nezha. However, apart from the logic that he is "indeed someone's son", almost none of the elements involved in the story really belong to Nezha - all of them are cobbled together from various stories and immortals.
Nezha in the memory of the post-80s 86th edition of Journey to the West
Who the hell is Nezha's father?
In "Romance of the Gods and Journey to the West", Nezha is the youngest son of Li Qiao. After going to junior high school and studying history, there is always a question: This Li Jing of Chen Tangguan and Li Jing, the founding general of the Tang Dynasty, have the same name and surname, is it the same person? If so, why did Li Jing of the Tang Dynasty run away to the Shang Dynasty?
This is really a series of misunderstandings caused by folklore. First of all, we need to know that Nezha came from Buddhism, and the Buddhist scriptures record that he was the son of King Vishhamon.
In Taoism, China's native religion, there is no "heavenly king" in its teachings. The four heavenly kings known to the world were originally the protectors of the Dharma in Buddhism who were responsible for guarding the four directions, among which the one guarding the north was called the Heavenly King of Bishamen, the third oldest in his family, named "Nezha". This third prince usually holds the pagoda and follows the king on duty around the heavenly king. This is the earliest origin of King Tota and Nezha.
During the Tang Dynasty, Chinese people's belief in King Bishamen flourished. "Bishamon" is a transliteration of Sanskrit, but the common people do not understand it, and they think that there is really a door in heaven called "Bisha" - isn't the king of Bishamen the king who guards the "Bisha" gate. Everyone, since there are doors in the north, there are naturally doors on the east and west and south sides, you four heavenly kings, just look at the four doors. As a result, the four great protectors of the hall were completely turned into doormen! There is a passage in the miscellaneous drama "Journey to the West" in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties: "Heavenly soldiers will always return, and the Jinta Gaoqing Town is northern." The four seas are famous and surnamed, and Li Tianwang under the Bishamen. "Lo and behold, here the "King of Bishamon" has been clearly placed under the door of "Visha Gate".
In the Buddhist scriptures, of course, the four heavenly kings also have names: the Eastern Heavenly King, the Southern Growth Heavenly King, the Western Guangmu Heavenly King, and the Northern Duowen Heavenly King. Dowen is the paraphrase of Visha Mun. Some people may ask: According to what was said just now, the prototype of Tota Li Tianwang is the Bishamen Heavenly King, but in "Journey to the West" there is another Duowen Tianwang who looks at the north gate, and he and Li Tianwang are obviously not alone. Then aren't there five heavenly kings in the Heavenly Palace?
In fact, the Tiangong in "Journey to the West" is neither the "heaven" of Buddhism nor the "heaven" of Taoism, but a set of systems compiled and created by the people. This adds some of the imagination of the common gods and the common people, such as the queen mother and mother to the Jade Emperor as a wife, which is a folk invention.
Back to Li Jing. Li Jing was the founding father of the Tang Dynasty, with outstanding merits, worshiped by others, and full of incense, not a god, but enjoying the treatment of a god. The people liked Li Jing very much, so they kept making up stories about him. A famous story called "Li Jing Travels for the Dragon on His Behalf" says that he went to a certain place to spend the night, and it happened that the Dragon King was going to rain there, and he was short of manpower, so he asked him to make up for the shortage. Li Jing made his own claim and dropped 20 more drops, and as a result, the water depth of the flat land soared by 20 zhang.
This story was originally told, who knew that the Western Guangmu Heavenly King in the Buddhist scriptures was precisely the top boss of the Dragon King, whose name was "Birubocha". Biliu Bocha is in charge of rain, and Li Jing is also in charge of rain, so people take it for granted that Li Jing is arranged to this "Biliu Bocha". However, "Bi Liu Bocha" is really not as famous as "Bi Shamen", and the two heavenly kings are both "surnamed Bi", the common people can't tell the difference, they only think that these four words of Bi Shi are too tongue-in-cheek, yes, even if you Li Jing is the Bishamen Heavenly King of the Pagoda! Finally, King Bishamen and Li Jing completed their merger and became Tota Li Tianwang.
But the joke isn't over. After King Tota Li met with the public, somehow the alias of King Bishamon, "King Duowen", was remembered again. In the hearts of ordinary people who did not know much about Buddhist scriptures, King Bishamen and King Duowen were naturally two people. Therefore, under everyone's arrangement, Li Jing dressed in the equipment of the king of Bishamen took office, not only successfully obtaining the actual reputation of Bishamen, but also usurping his subordinates. So we see that when Li Tianwang set out to attack Huaguo Mountain, there was "a medicine fork that will urge the troops, and the fish belly will sweep back." "Yaocha" or Yasha, and "fish belly" or Yicha, were originally the followers of King Visha Mun in Buddhism.
On this side, Tota Li Tianwang is heroic; On the other side, the former King of Bishamen became the commander of the light pole. He can only bear the name of "Duowen Tianwang", wear a guard suit, and stare at the door of "Bisha" 24 hours a day. The name is gone, the subordinates are gone, and the word "door" in the name is handed over to my care. Is there anything more humiliating under heaven?
There really is!
In this way, Nezha has two fathers, which one is with him? Of course, whoever has the most power will follow whom. No, the sad "King Bishamen" even betrayed his own son and ran to follow Li Jing.
It should be noted that Nezha was not originally a child before entering Li's door. The Tang translation of the "Northern Bishamen Heavenly King's Guardian Ritual with the Army" records that he had a pair of "evil eyes", often "holding a halberd in his hand, seeing all directions with evil eyes", and when he saw that the monk did not keep the precepts, he would beat and reprimand with a vajra stick. Such a fiery temper is really different from the role setting of the bun grabber later.
As for why Li Jing appeared in the Shang Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty, it is thanks to the helpless setting of "Romance of the Gods", this book wants Li Jing's father and son to participate in the great cause of logging, and can only let them travel back to two thousand years ago.
The son of King Shun is also called Nezha?
It is said that before Nezha was born, he stayed in the belly of his mother Mrs. Yin for three years and six months, and finally gave birth, and it turned out to be a meat ball. Everyone was shocked, and some simply wanted to throw "it" into the wild, but fortunately his father Li Jing swung his sword and cut it, which led to the emergence of Little Nezha.
In fact, the story of "Romance of the Gods" may belong to the Tai Sui Shen Yin Jiao.
In the Yuan Dynasty's fengshen story "King Wu Fa Lin Pingyu", there is no role of Nezha, and the forerunner of Fa Lun is Yin Jiao, that is, the later Yin Jiao. Yin Jiao was persecuted by his father, King Shu, fled the palace, evaded pursuing, and met the prodigal son in the temple. The prodigal god granted him a hundred-pound axe and a body of divine power, and ordered him to be a forerunner when he broke the crop. Later, King Wu raised his army, Yin Jiao came and ran, passing the hurdle as a pioneer along the way, and finally chopped off the head of King Feng with a big axe.
It can be seen that in the early stories of Fengshen Jiao, Yin Jiao's status is very high, and he can be called the first general of Xiqi. However, perhaps out of the reason of following the "filial piety", the son could not be allowed to oppose Laozi, and later when "Romance of the Gods" wrote about Yin Jiao, he deliberately dealt with it as a negative role, causing a lot of trouble for Xiqi. And the identity of the pioneer of felling was also transferred to Nezha. It is also mentioned many times in the book, such as the thirteenth time, Nezha said: "Master said that I would later become a pioneer and break into a soup world." "From the moment he came back from the dead, Nezha was doomed to the fate of the forerunner. This identity was clearly taken from Yin Jiao!
Not only do identities overlap, but even stories overlap. Let's take a look at how Yin Jiao was born in the "Three Religions Origins and Streams Search for Gods" written by the Ming Dynasty:
Handsome, the son of the king. The mother queen Jiang, one day, traveled to the palace garden and saw the footprints of giants. Later, she became pregnant with foot practice and was born handsome. Wrapped in a meat ball, she was born at the time, and was favored by the king, and the concubine Daji impersonated Wang Yu: "The main palace produces monsters." "The king ordered to abandon the narrow alley, and the ox and horse did not dare to trample on his body when he saw it. The king also ordered to throw himself into the suburbs, where the crows covered the sun and the white deer offered milk. The real person in the incarnation of Shi Jinding passed by, but seeing the auspicious clouds and mist, purple qi, and no light everywhere, the real person looked closely, it was a meat ball, and said: "This fairy fetus is also." "Cut the sword into a ball, and get a baby, that is, carry it back to the water curtain cave, and ask the nursing mother He Xian Gu to nurse and nurture it, the legal name is Jin Dingya, the right name is Jin Nezha, and because of his abandonment, and the milk name is Yin Jiao."
The bridge from the meat ball is so similar to Nezha in "Romance of the Gods"! And, did you notice? Yin Jiao is actually "named Jin Nezha", and the Taoist scriptures say that he is "child face", how can his relationship with Nezha be "extraordinary" can be summarized? It is clearly inseparable and inseparable. In contrast, in the original Buddhist texts, the story of Nezha does not have such a plot. In other words, all of the above were copied from Yin Jiao.
Even the guys borrowed everything
Coincidentally, Marshal Huaguangma, an important immortal of the Shangqing Dynasty Taoist Leifa, was also born from a strange meat ball. Mr. Chen Hong sorted out the requirements for the mage to "ponder" (that is, imagine) in the "Examination of the Image Origin of Yinjiao in the Romance of the Gods":
The Taoist priest needs to imagine the combination of two qi in the body, first turned into a treasure orb, the second lightning strikes to break the treasure orb, there is a baby in the bead, gradually grows up, turns into "Dan Yuanjun, top with a clear crown, a silk robe and a zhu shoe, a long skirt and jade pei", riding the red and white qi to turn the mud pill, and then turn the ground into dead wood, and then luckily burn the wood into ash, "I see a flesh ball in the ash, and I cut it open with a sword trick, and I see a baby sitting on a gold plate, holding a burning word in both hands", this is Marshal Ma's childhood appearance. As a famous fire god, some southern folk temples even confuse Marshal Ma with Huode Zhenjun.
Looking back, let's look at Nezha's magic weapon in "Romance of the Gods": fire spear, Hot Wheel, Nine Dragon God Fire Cover... Some people may wonder, Nezha was born on the seashore, and later appeared in the incarnation of the lotus, originally had a great relationship with "water", why did he take some "fire" instruments?
To say that the most classic image of Nezha is holding a fire-tipped gun and stepping on a hot wheel (called Hot Wheel in "Romance of the Gods", and "Fire Wheel" in "Journey to the West"). However, these two treasures that determined his combat power index were both "borrowed" from Marshal Huaguangma.
"Fire wheel" is just a guy in the hand in "Journey to the West", and in "Romance of the Gods", it becomes stepping on the feet, much like today's roller skating, balance bike or storm shoes. This wheel-shaped thing has always been the standard for Marshal Huaguangma in Taoist land and water paintings. Sometimes draw two wheels, sometimes draw one, that is, the "eight arches of the uniwheel king" mentioned in Guo Degang's crosstalk "The Great Bodyguard". Marshal Ma stepped on it unimpeded, it was almost like running out of the Wuqiao Acrobatic Troupe.
Marshal Ma, who stepped on the wheel, appeared in the miscellaneous drama "Journey to the West" in the early Yuan Weiming Dynasty - "Five hundred fire pill sleeves, one pair of fire wheels." The fire gourd tightly bound the master, so that Lou dragged the golden gun." Lo and behold, his weapons are not only fire wheels, but also golden guns, which Nezha's so-called fire spears. When the "Three Religions Origins Search for Gods" wrote a biography for Marshal Ma, he must also mention his "wind wheel and fire wheel". And "Journey to the South", which features him as the protagonist, explains the origin of this second round of wind and fire - Hua Guang submitted to the second judge of wind and fire. Therefore, no matter what you say, the owner of the fire wheel and the fire tip gun is Marshal Huaguangma, not the third prince of Nezha.
In Taoism, there are other thunder generals with similar magic weapons, such as Wang Lingguan, who also step on similar wheels, commonly known as "trains". The Spiritual Official Treasure says: "The heavenly lord will have no god king." Du Tian corrected the Great Spirit Official, the selfless fierce general of the Three Realms. Golden-eyed Zhufa, No. 35 train Lei Gong. It can be seen that Leifa God will step on "roller skating", which is simply a must in the industry!
There is an intriguing detail in "Romance of the Gods". Zhang Guifang of Vaxiqi is good at calling names and falling off horses. When you see someone riding a horse, you only need to shout "so-and-so will not dismount yet, but when" to facilitate the soul to scatter and fall off the horse. But Nezha is not afraid, because he is a lotus incarnation and has no soul. Zhang Guifang didn't know the truth, he shouted at Nezha, the original words were: "Nezha still don't get off the car, more when!" Later versions were changed to "Next round." In fact, the detail of "getting off the train" reflects that the author and readers at that time agreed that the Hot Wheels that Nezha stepped on were actually equivalent to the "train" under the feet of the god of fire or thunder.
This setting also affects Red Son. The theme mural of "Journey to the West" at the Great Buddha Temple in Zhangye, Gansu, is believed to have been painted in the Qing Dynasty. Among them, the red child stepped on a two-wheeled trolley, his right arm stretched out, and set fire to the work. This little car is very strange, why do you step on it to emit a three-flavor real fire? In fact, it is the same origin as Nezha's Hot Wheels and "trains", which originally belong to the magic weapon of Marshal Ma of Vulcan. The "fire-tipped gun" in the hands of the Red Child should also have changed from Marshal Ma's "golden gun".
Mural painting in Zhangye, Gansu
Nezha also has an even more strange magic weapon - gold bricks. "Romance of the Gods" said that Nezha was refined in martial arts and wanted to go down the mountain to Chen Tangguan to take revenge, and Master Taiyi Zhenren gave a leopard skin bag, and put a mixed heavenly aya, a qiankun circle, and a gold brick in the bag. This gold brick is not a entanglement on the road. What is that? Please see the thirty-fourth episode of "Flying Tiger Returns to Zhou Jianziya":
(Nezha) Fang Tianji with his left hand gun blocked, took a piece of gold brick with his right hand, threw it into the air, and shouted: "Hurry! "I saw that the colorful Rui was dark in the sky, and the treasure on Qianyuan Mountain was shining, and the brick was about to fall, and a brick was beaten on Yuhua's top helmet, and the saddle was dropped, and the blood sprayed in the trick, Nezha saw that the Huang family would be killed, took the gold brick with his hand and threw it in the air, hit the general, and the general Han Rong was in the center, and the protective goggles were smashed one after another, and he left in the desert.
No matter how superb his mana is, he can't be beaten by a brick flying out of thin air. It's just that this picture of shooting bricks is used on Nezha, there is always an indescribable weird feeling, guess correctly, this treasure is also borrowed, the main family is still Marshal Huaguangma.
The legend of Huaguang is very widespread among the people. In the thirty-sixth episode of "Water Margin", Zhang Heng, the ship's fire, and Song Jiang, who fled, did not fight or know each other. Zhang Heng swayed the Song Jiang across the Xunyang River, changed his face halfway, and wanted to seek wealth and kill him. He sang the Huzhou song in his mouth: "The old man grew up by the river, and he doesn't like to travel, only money." Last night, Huaguang came to take advantage of me and won a gold brick before leaving! "Song Jiang listened, his legs were soft...
This text shows that during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties or even earlier, the people generally understood that Hua Guang was holding gold bricks and was so famous that Zhang Heng wanted to compare Hua Guang with Laozi, the king of heaven. Modern people may ask, why did Huaguang take gold bricks as "arrows"? "Journey to the South" clearly writes that Hua Guang was reincarnated in the house of King Yanxuantian, called "Three-Eyed Lingyao", worshipped Miao Le Tianzun as a teacher, but fraudulently took his golden knife and refined it into a triangular gold brick to make treasures. This is his signature weapon, and it has nothing to do with Nezha. In the Taoist land and water paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Marshal Ma holds a gold brick in his hand, which looks much more harmonious than Nezha.
Marshal Huaguangma
There is also a magic weapon in "Romance of the Gods", called the Nine Dragon God Fire Cover, which was obtained from the God of Fire. "Dao Dharma Hui Yuan" and "Taishang Three Caves Divine Mantra" have a "fire cover spell", and you need to meditate when casting the spell: "Please the hara of the sun, the ancestor of fire, tie iron as a net, and promote gold as a poppy." Flames on all sides were raised in all directions. The upper part is the sky, and the lower is the soil lord. Fire catches fire, fire flails test fire, swings fire. Zhao Yuan, the Lord captured and attached. When you catch the evil, you immediately vomit. Urgent as a command. "Rather, the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Hood is the embodiment of Taoist mantras such as the "Fire Hood Spell".
The magic weapon of disappearance
However, if you have more things, it is easy to lose, and the magic weapon is the same.
Nezha's magic weapon in the hundred-fold book "Journey to the West" is very different from his "Romance of the Gods". Those demon swords, demon slashing knives, demon ropes, and hydrangeas seem to have all been lost today, and what impressed us is still the fire tip gun and Hot Wheel.
In fact, these treasures are still borrowed, but there is a more Buddhist background: the demon sword and the demon slashing knife should have evolved from the "holding object" (referring to the magic weapon symbolizing identity held by the god statue) in the right hand of King Bishamen - Wu Hook. The demon rope, on the other hand, originated from the juan cord of the Guangmu Heavenly King, and is likely to originate from the hunter prototype of the Guangmu Heavenly King, and was used to bind prey. In "Romance of the Gods", the demon rope has become a chaotic Aya that can entangle people.
Devil pestles are not rare, and Tibetan Buddhist gods and statues basically have such special things in their hands. Hydrangea is different, and it's hard to imagine what special magic this silk weaving gadget can have. Fortunately, "Journey to the South" revealed the mystery - there are unicorn anti-scale dragons, octagonal heads, pollo dragons, world-swallowing ghosts, etc. in the hydrangea ball, much like the refining pot in the game "Xuanyuan Sword Traces of Heaven", which can be released at any time to help.
Song Ren Hongmai recorded the spiritual story of the Nezha mantra that was popular among the people of the Song Dynasty in the article "Master Cheng" in the "Yijianzhi". This Master Cheng can practice Maoshan Dharma and cure diseases and drive away evil spirits. One day, I encountered a stone spirit who used other spells that didn't work, so he took the Nezha Renqiu spell. I saw a fireball come out of its own and hit a black block, shattering the black block, and the fireball disappeared after several turns around. When the fireballs were fighting, people heard the sound of golden drums, like the "sound of thousands of people" fighting.
Here, Nezha has been listed as the god general sequence of "Maoshan Zhengfa", and has a special spell "Nezha Fireball Spell", which can really send out fireballs like arcade games. The hydrangea may be the manifestation of the "fireball curse" after solidification, and the "sound of thousands of people fighting" is the cry of the assistants in it. This can be regarded as a magic weapon that truly belongs to Nezha.
I don't know what the prototype is. As for the "Yin Yang Sword", it was only mentioned in a cursory sentence in the "Romance of the Gods", and the combat power is unknown: "Taiyi Zhenren passed on the method of Nezha's looming appearance." Nezha is overjoyed, holding the Qiankun circle in one hand and the Mixed Heavenly Aya in one hand, holding the gold brick with two fire-tipped spearers in the two hands, and three empty hands; : The real person also took the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Shield and the Yin Yang Sword, making a total of eight weapons. ”
The author of "Romance of the Gods") often confuses three heads and six arms with three heads and eight arms. In fact, many tantric gods have three heads and eight arms instead of six arms, but Middle-earth people always wishfully believe that one head must be matched with two arms, so sometimes there are six arms and sometimes eight arms in the book, which is inconsistent. If Nezha is three heads and six arms, holding a weapon in one hand, there is nothing wrong with the Yin and Yang Sword, and the previous magic weapons are also enough. If it is three heads and eight arms, you can only make up two more Yin Yang Swords to come out. Therefore, these two swords were never used, they were just decorations.
Therefore, Nezha's skills are also constantly getting more and stronger with the evolution of history. Nezha, who was originally the protector of the Heavenly King of Vishhamun, had never heard of any particularly surprising skills, only that he "looked in all directions with evil eyes"—like today's surveillance cameras, punishing practitioners who violated the vows. This is the primordial state of his supernatural powers. Nezha's "Devil Pestle" in "Journey to the West" may be the embodiment of this magical power, but when he merges with the belief of the fire god and Yin Jiao, the magical power is many and mixed: the Nine Dragon God Fire Hood, Hot Wheel, and Fire Spear are all fire system spells, and the "soul system spell immunity" method given by the lotus incarnation, and the ability of the Yin Yang Sword to approximate physical attacks, are the credit of "Romance of the Gods".
However, things are extremely opposite, and the popular film "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" in 2019 completely stripped off the rest of Nezha's spells and directly bound them to fire spells, almost becoming a copy of Huaguang. The opposite of Ao Bing, is the water system spell (the Qiankun circle has become a similar existence to a tightening spell), such a structure of water and fire, good and evil, god and demon, spirit bead and magic pill, which may not be expected by Buddhist beliefs.
Interestingly, this antagonism seems to have been influenced by the West, because in traditional Chinese culture, water and fire are only two opposing elements in the character world, which have never been related to the confrontation between good and evil, and are used by both good and evil. Those who are proficient in water spells and fire spells include both immortals and monsters. But in Western culture, hell, fire dragons, and fire elements are more inclined to evil. It can be said that Nezha in "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" has brought us a new cultural connotation. It also recreates the character image of Nezha, and has an evil sense of cuteness.
There is also the 2020 movie "New God List: Nezha Reborn" is another overlapping product of myths and eras. Combining mythology with the mechanical age, cyberstyle, is equally refreshing.
It can also be seen that the shaping of the image of Nezha by the Chinese people has absorbed countless cultural elements and completed a process of change from Buddhism to Taoism or folk beliefs. In the beginning, he was only the protector of the Visha Heavenly King, but he was unruly, and in the solemn and dignified Pantheon, he was an outlier.
Such a character is actually very popular with the Chinese people, because in their subconscious mind constrained by the way of loyalty and filial piety, there is always an element of trying to break through and rebel. Nezha is like this, and so is Sun Wukong. In the process of more than a thousand years of circulation, people have continuously taken similar cultural symbols from other gods and added them to Nezha, making him richer and stronger, and finally becoming a mythical hero second only to Sun Wukong in the literature of the Ming and Qing dynasties.