Nezha (哪吒)

In the narrative summarized from Fengshen Yanyi, Nezha is born after an unusually long gestation as a ball of flesh which is split open; he emerges as a fully mobile and precocious boy. In episodes from the same source he kills supernatural opponents (including a yaksha and the Dragon King's son), later kills himself to repay the debt of his birth by returning his flesh and bones to his parents, and is subsequently reconstructed by his teacher Taiyi Zhenren using lotus roots. Scholarly summaries identify Nezha as a localized Chinese development connected to the South Asian yaksha Nalakuvara via Buddhist transmission and later assimilated into Taoist and folk cult frameworks.

Narrative sources emphasize Nezha's initial miraculous emergence as a boy who could immediately walk and jump and, after reconstruction, a body formed from lotus roots. He is associated with a set of named martial accoutrements given in the story: Wind Fire Wheels (風火輪), Fire-tipped Spear (火尖槍), the Qiankun Quan (乾坤圈), Huntian Ling (混天绫, a red sash), and Qiankun Bow with Zhengtian Arrows—items that form his literary and cultic iconography in the Fengshen Yanyi account.

In the Fengshen Yanyi episodes used by the provided sources, Nezha displays precocious mobility at birth, exceptional martial skill, and efficacy with named magical weapons. He slays supernatural opponents (a yaksha and Ao Bing, son of the East Sea Dragon King), can cause violent disturbance to waters via his sash, and is able to humiliate and physically dominate Dragon King agents in narrative confrontations. He also performs an extreme filial act of self-mutilation and death to repay his birth debt and is capable of being reconstituted by an immortal teacher—crossing life/death boundaries and returning as an efficacious cult figure whose enshrinement leads to granting of petitions.