Obviously, "Nezha" is a foreign phonetic name, which means it is not native to China. It turns out that Nezha is indeed an exotic product of God. In the long years, Iranians and China people have influenced and controlled a vast area from the west to the East Asia. Iranian and China residents exchanged and traded with each other in different periods. Undoubtedly, this kind of neighboring relationship and mutual communication has had a far-reaching impact on the civilizations and cultures of the two peoples, which is worth studying in depth from all aspects.
Because of the romance of literati, Nezha's story is close to popularization and completeness. The article "Prince Nezha" included in the Ming edition of "Three Religions Seeking God" wrote a relatively complete legend for Nezha: "Nezha was born under the guidance of the Jade Emperor, six feet long, with a golden wheel, three heads, nine eyes and eight arms on his head ..." "Because there are many demons in the world, the Jade Emperor ordered him to descend to the world, so he entrusted the fetus to the tower king Li Jing" and ". Nezha then cut the meat and returned it to his father, seeking perfection in the face of the true spirit Buddha. " The Buddha ... then folded the lotus into bone threads to make shins, and the leaves were born to make clothes ... After that, the Jade Emperor named it "the first ambassador of 36 members" ... It can be seen that this story already contains the basic image details of Nezha. However, all aspects are not very prominent.
The legend of Nezha aroused great interest of the Ming literati. They draw lessons from them one after another, connecting some fragmented plots in series, enriching the surreal imagination and creating a vivid and lovely image of Nezha, thus completing the wonderful romance of Nezha's story. Among them, The Journey to the West's Travels to the South and Romance of Gods are the most prominent. In the Journey to the West's description of the war between Nezha and the Monkey King, we can see that his weapons are basically complete, and he also made a reasonable explanation of "returning the bones to his father and the meat to his mother", and also told the reason why Li Jing held the tower. As for the Romance of the Gods, it draws lessons from The Journey to the West's description of "Hong Haier" and writes Nezha as a child with a sharp gun, thus finally forming the image of Nezha. In Taoism, he is called the commander-in-chief of the magic weapon, known as "Marshal Zhongtan" and "General Ling Wei". The Jade Emperor ordered him to stay in Tianmen forever.
Nezha was born under the Jade Emperor, six feet long, with a golden wheel on his head, three heads, nine eyes and eight arms. He talks eloquently, steps on rocks, holds instruments, makes a hullabaloo about, and sex comes from him without moving. Because there are many demons in the world, the Jade Emperor ordered him to descend to earth, so he entrusted the fetus to Li Jing, the king of Tota. Mrs. Su Zhi gave birth to the eldest son Jin Bai, the second son Bai Mu and the handsome triplet Nezha. Born five days ago, I bathed in the East China Sea, set foot on the Crystal Hall, turned over and went straight into the Pagoda Palace. The dragon king stepped on the temple and demanded war in anger. When he is handsome for seven days, he can fight and kill Kowloon. Lao Long had no choice but to mourn for the emperor, and he knew it. He intercepted the war under Tianmen, and the dragon died. He was surprised, took the Tathagata's bow and arrow from the altar, and shot the son of Queen Shijie, while Shijie raised an army. Shuai took the father's altar and killed it in the Western War. My father took Shilu as the leader of the inferno and killed him in anger to anger the inferno soldiers. Shuai then cut the meat and returned it to his father, holding the true spirit and seeking perfection at the edge of the Buddha. Because of the ability to subdue demons, the Buddha smashed lotus seeds into bones, lotus roots into meat, silk into tendons, and leaves into garments. He got the secret order from Falun Gong and was personally accepted by Zi Mu's eldest son, so he can cross the river into the sea and move the stars, big and small; Frightened, the sky fell; Oh, golden light covers the world; As soon as the brick rings, the dragon follows the tiger; With a wave of his gun, turn around; When the hydrangea is thrown, the mountain collapses and the sea cracks. So, all the demons, such as Niu Wangmo, Lion Devil, Elephant Devil, Horsehead Devil, World Devil, Gui Mu Devil, Nine-headed Devil, Dolly Devil, Brahma Devil, Five Hundred Demons and Seventy-two Fire Crows, fell down, so that they killed the red monkey (the grandson of Huaguoshan) and the dragon. Gammer is handsome, knowledgeable and changeable. Therefore, Lingshan thinks that Tian Tong and Ling Wei are outstanding generals. The Jade Emperor was appointed as the first general envoy of 36 members, the leader of Yuan and the Tianmen of Yongzheng. It can be seen that the stories in the Romance of Gods and Nezha in The Journey to the West are basically consistent with the records in the Romance of Gods by Three Religions, that is to say, Nezha's story is basically characterized by the Romance of Gods by Three Religions, and finally Nezha became a household name with the image in the Romance of Gods. Regarding the origin of the name "Nezha", it is generally believed that "Nezha" is the abbreviation of Sanskrit Nala kubala, and "Nala kubala" means "the son of Cubeira", that is, Nala kubala is composed of Nala, kubala or Cubeira. However, Professor Jin concluded: "I don't think Nezha can be translated from Nata or Nada or Nora."
Indian scholar Koyaji once pointed out in his book Beliefs and Myths in Ancient Iran and China that the real name "Lingzhu" in Nezha is helpful to explain the etymology of the name "Solabo" in Iran, because "Solabo" means "bright and shining" in ancient Persian and extended to "outstanding". Some Iranian scholars speculate that the word "Nezha" may come from the Persian word "Nuzad", because the image of Nezha has always been the image of a seven-or eight-year-old child.
The meaning of the word Nezha in Chinese is still unknown, but the word Nuzar means "young and brand-new" in Avisto and Nuzad (newborn and child) in Persian.
The story of Iranian Nezha Sorabo is the second greatest tragedy in the famous Iranian epic Kings. Solabo's story mainly includes three parts: strange childhood, fighting, and fighting between father and son. Solabo in Kings (just like Nezha in China's works) hated King Cowes (or Zhou Wang) from beginning to end. Solabo's attitude towards King Kaus is best explained in China's works. In China, Nezha is one of Zhou Wang's toughest and most determined enemies. In fact, Taoist immortals revived Nezha and reconciled him with his father so that he could help overthrow Zhou Wang. Solabo wants to overthrow its monarch, which is completely in line with Nezha's behavior.
There is also a less noticeable hero in Iranian mythology that deserves our attention. Not only is the name similar to Nezha's, but also his identity, family and some experiences are similar to Nezha's. This figure is Nuzal, the seventh king of the legendary Pishidian dynasty in Iran. First of all, we can see that Nuzal's pronunciation is almost the same as that of Nezha today.
Nuzal's identity is similar to that of Nezha.
First, Nuzal is one of the three sons of the famous Iranian king Manusher, and he is also the prince of King Manusher. Nezha was one of the three sons of Li Jing who later became the king of Tota. He is also known as the prince, but people don't know why he became the youngest.
Secondly, according to Iranian myths and legends and the famous epic Kings, Manusher has been in power for 1.20 years, and as a prince, Nuzar has been marching beside the generals; As a pioneer in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Nezha's crusade against Shang Zhouwang was an important part of the Romance of the Gods.
Thirdly, Nuzal was finally captured and killed in the battle with the Turans. According to Iranian legend, Nuzal was captured and killed when his father was in power, while the epic Kings says that Nuzal succeeded to the throne after his father died and was captured and killed by Turans for seven years. In addition to "gut-opening, gut-gouging and flesh-and-blood removal, Nezha returned to his parents" when he was a child, he came back from the dead during the battle in Shang Zhouwang.
Fourth, although Nuzal didn't come back to life after his death, he and many descendants became saints in Iranian mythology, and they will be resurrected at the end of the world to save the world, which is called the Nuzal family; Nezha not only became a saint himself, but also his father and brothers Jin Bai and Bai Mu.