Nezha can be said to be a very famous character in Chinese folklore, and there is a very famous story in the legend Nezha in the sea. In the childhood of Xia Kejun, I watched the cartoon "Nezha in the Sea", in which Nezha is a young hero who is not afraid of rape and adheres to justice. Xia Kejun also wrote in previous articles that in "The Romance of the Gods", Nezha is not a young hero who is not afraid of rape, but more like a second generation of officials who have been bullied, relying on the power of his own master Yuxu Palace, and doing nonsense, but in the end the retribution is not happy, the Dragon King of the East China Sea came to take Nezha after asking for a decree from the Heavenly Court, Nezha did things alone, committed suicide, and the Dragon King of the East China Sea saw Nezha commit suicide, so he didn't mention the killing of his son, so from "Romance of the Gods" Judging from the description, the Dragon King of the East China Sea is more like a well-behaved immortal.
And the appearance of Nezha in "The Romance of the Gods" is more in line with folklore, there is a saying that Beijing City has another title called "Eight-armed Nezha City", and Nezha in "Romance of the Gods" is the appearance of the eight-armed Nezha. However, in "The Romance of the Gods", Nezha mentions in many places that he is the reincarnation of the spirit bead, the forerunner of Jiang Ziya, what is the so-called spirit bead? Is it as the name says, is it an item like a bead or an immortal called a spirit bead? You must know that in myths and legends, it is normal for a god to be reincarnated as a mortal. For example, in "Journey to the West", the disciple Jin Chanzi was reincarnated as a Tang monk, the jade girl of the Heavenly Palace Phixiang Hall was reincarnated as an adult, and the princess of the Treasure Elephant Kingdom in the world, etc.; In other novels, there are also many examples of immortals being reincarnated as mortals, such as the wedge of "Water Margin", it is said that Song Renzong is the reincarnation of a barefoot immortal in the sky, and Bao Zheng and Di Qing of Renzong's dynasty are the reincarnation of Wenquxing and Wuquxing respectively. Therefore, if it is said that Lingzhu is the name of a god, it is reasonable.
Of course, whether the spirit bead is a person or a thing, can we find the answer from the original work of "Romance of the Gods"?
In "The Romance of the Gods", it is written that the spirit beads are people and things, for example, at the end of the eleventh chapter of the novel, it is written that the white crane boy holds the jade of the Jade Void Palace, and asks Taiyi Zhenren to send the Lingzhu down the mountain, and what is written is "Taiyi Zhenren sends this master down the mountain", since it is called "Lord", it must be humanoid, that is to say, it is the reincarnation of a fairy named Lingzhuzi. But in the twelfth chapter that followed, when Nezha was officially born, it was written that Nezha's mother, Mrs. Yin, saw in a dream that "I saw a Taoist give an object to Mrs. Wang's arms", which again means that it is an item, otherwise the word "one thing" would not be written. It can be seen that in "The Romance of the Gods", the author does not say very sure whether the spirit beads are people or objects. So from the perspective of folklore, are spirit beads people or objects?
In fact, from searching for Nezha in Baidu, we can know that Nezha is the god of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and worship, and according to Baidu's collation, Nezha's master is Taiyi Zhenren and Rulai Buddha. It is estimated that this kind of arrangement is to adopt the descriptions in "Romance of the Gods" and "Journey to the West", after all, in "Romance of the Gods", Nezha's master is Taiyi Zhenren, and in "Journey to the West", Nezha's master is the Buddha. It's just that there are still some similar descriptions in the two novels, that is, they have both made trouble at sea, and their fathers are Li Jing. However, there are many contents in Baidu Encyclopedia that do not say that Nezha is the reincarnation of the spirit bead, and it is not until the back that there is a record like ""Bao Hui Daquan, Nezha Bao He, Kai Jing Wei": Taishang Baoguang Lingzhuer. The decree came to the world for more than three years. Taiyi Lindu practiced golden light. Qianyuan Mountain went to school mysteriously. "Zhongtan Marshal Bao Hu Zhixin Conversion Ceremony" records: Jade Emperor God. The spirit bead is born. The town is innate. Dominate the middle camp. Ruler of God. Mana is boundless. Broad and vast. Extraordinary skills. [173-174] "Bao Hu Daquan, Zhixin Conversion Ceremony, Zhongtan Marshal True Scripture" records: Xingzhou Shengjiang. Striker. The Golden Light Cave is wrapped in a spirit bead. Yuxu was ordered to descend to Chentang. "The Marshal of the Middle Altar Demon Sutra" records: I am the god of Lingzhu on Qianyuan Mountain, descended to the mortal world to save the people, and was born in June of three years. Such records, but we can also see from these descriptions that some of the spirit beads are objects, and some of them are gods, and it seems that there is no conclusion.
In addition, searching for the word "spirit bead" in Baidu, the answers are not the same, some say it is a treasure, and some say that it is a protector boy under Nuwa's seat.
It is precisely because of these inconclusive statements that some different expressions have also been adopted in many different film and television works, such as Singapore's "Lotus Boy Nezha" TV series that Lingzhuzi is the protector of the Dharma under Nuwa's seat.
After such a search, we can find that it is really inconclusive whether the spirit bead is a person or an object, but from the habitual point of view of the title, Xia Kejun would rather believe that the word spirit bead refers to a person. Why? Because calling others "XX Zi" is more in line with the honorific title for people in traditional Chinese culture, such as "Confucius", "Laozi", "Zhuangzi", "Sun Tzu", "Han Feizi" and so on in Chinese history, as for Taoism, there is a habit of connecting other people's Taoist names with Zi, "Romance of the Gods" has Guangchengzi, Red Sperm, Yunzhongzi, etc., like some celebrities in Taoism also have this title, such as Quanzhen Seven Sons have Changchun Ziqiu Chuji, Guangning Zi Hao Datong, Danyang Zi Ma Yu, Changzhenzi Tan Chuduan, Yuyang Ziwang Chuyi, Changsheng Zi Liu Chuxuan, Hao Datong also has a title called "Taiguzi", except for the Qingjing Sanren Sun Buer, the others are all called "Zi", so it is not strange that a certain immortal in the upper realm is called "Lingzhuzi"! Of course, all this is just the foolish opinion of Xia Kejun, because there is no unified statement, just everyone discusses it together.
What do you think?