Who is Ne Zha, the deity behind a jaw-dropping blockbuster?

This article is part of CGTN's "China In Ink" project. The project brings the tremendous world of classic Chinese literature to the fingertips of global audiences.

In Chinese mythology, the baby-faced warrior god Ne Zha is singular.

Tales of him whacking dragons, chasing his father in revenge or subjugating monsters alongside the Monkey King gives him a unique place among legends. 

Now he has been written into the 21^st century record books too, thanks to a box-office smashing blockbuster movie.

The second instalment of the animated franchise Ne Zha (Ne Zha 2) is China’s highest-grossing film ever. The coming-of-age story for the deity, based loosely on a 17^th century novel, has brought in over $1 billion in ticket sales in just two weeks.

Leading up to Ne Zha’s renaissance on the big screen, his character underwent centuries of development. From a fierce-looking Buddhist divinity to a teen apprenticing Taoist demi-god, Ne Zha’s genesis story is a bitesize history of philosophy and religion in China.

To begin with, Ne Zha is not a Chinese name. It is a shortened Chinese transliteration of a Sanskrit word. The owner of it is the Indian mythological figure Nalakuvara. 

Nalakuvara, also known as Nalakubara, appears both in Hindu epics such as Ramayana and Buddhist literature. From the sixth century onward, Buddhism’s diffusion across China accelerated. As its heyday dawned with the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Nalakuvara’s journey in the Middle Kingdom began at the tip of the brush pens of the early sutra translators.

One of the earliest surviving texts featuring the name “Ne Zha” in the Chinese transliterated form is by Amoghavajra (704/5-774), a revered monk and prolific translator. In Ne Zha’s own words, the text portrays him as an arms-bearing, intimidating protection god of the belief and the believers, and a grandchild of Vessavaṇa, who is one of the Four Heavenly Kings in Buddhism. 

The foreign and local beliefs soon crossed paths. Where the translated words failed to make sense, existing Taoist and Confucianist concepts were handy to bridge the gap, or to punch holes. The communications set Buddhism on a different spiritual course in China. New schools emerged. The interplay of ideas also inspired new literature genres. Some translated tales were rewritten into semi-vernacular short stories which were performed orally as well.

Ne Zha’s legend was thus likely fashioned with new details that brighten the classic but lean texts. A ninth-century parable collection has “documented” a local adventure for Ne Zha: protecting a pious Chinese monk from falling down a flight of floors in the middle of the night.

Why, when and how Ne Zha morphed from an adult-looking deity into a child god are questions without certain answers. Some scholars have pointed to the Hindu divinity Krishna as a potential model. There are narrative similarities, such as slaying demons and performing miracles as a child. And Krishna was known in China at the time Ne Zha’s profile began to rise. A stone relief in South Indian style was found in south China’s port city Quanzhou, dated to the 13^th century. It depicts the story of Krishna delivering Nalakuvara from a curse.  

Buddhism’s golden era faded with the Tang Dynasty. But on the back of the popular tales, oral storytelling thrived. It was probably wandering storytellers who helped maintain Ne Zha’s popularity.

From the 16^th century onward, a new literati began to piece together shattered tales from the previous dynasties and compile them into longer and more coherent narratives. They ushered in full-length novels, creations that are emblematic of both the philosophical and religious landscape of the time. 

Ne Zha’s genesis story as we know it today was rounded out in the 17^th century by a novel called Feng-shen yan-yi (Investiture of the Gods), from which Ne Zha 2 is adapted. The book, whose authorship is debated, fictionalizes the founding of the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC) with demi-gods interfering in the Iliad manner. The book places Ne Zha as an irritable spear-wielding vanguard general for the Zhou king.

What is glaring about Ne Zha’s depiction in the book is his complete integration into the Taoist mythological universe. His father (or grandfather, another inconsistent detail in the different accounts about his lineage) is no longer the Heavenly King but a master of Taoist magic spells. The teacher who trains Ne Zha is also a Taoist deity. The transition makes Ne Zha a literary fossil for the religious and philosophical ecology in China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

From the 11^th century onward, Buddhism, together with Confucianism and Taoism, came to be thoroughly woven into the Chinese cultural, social and political reality. Emperor Xiaozong of Song (who reigned from 1162 to 89) once compared the three systems to the legs of a bronze ding – a ceremonial vessel infused with political and cultural authority: it would tip over if any “leg” was broken.

The influence of Buddhism’s alternative vision began to manifest. For example, the Confucian concept of self-cultivation to achieve sagehood bears the marks of the Chan Buddhism school which emphasizes meditation. That an “Emperor Jade” watches over mortals from heaven with his celestial bureaucrats is a Taoist reconstruction of the Indian Buddhism concept of heaven and hell. 

Ultimately Buddhist, Taoist and folk-religious elements fused into a popular belief universe in China, to which Ne Zha’s identity shift is one of its many expressions. Books like the Investiture of the Gods, and the Journey to the West (the 17^th century Chinese classic that features the Monkey King and, in some chapters, Ne Zha, too) turned many figures from this universe into cultural icons.

Today, new interpretations of the traditional figures are translating their enduring popularity into contemporary commercial success. Ne Zha 2 and the award-winning video game Black Myth: Wukong, which is based loosely on the Monkey King story, are among the most eye-catching examples.

Just as the Investiture of the Gods is revealing about 17^th century China, the 21^st century creations, too, offer a unique way to feel the contemporary social pulse.

Kinship and love, for example, less focal in the original novels, are major plot drivers in the film and the video game. The great reception for both perhaps points to a return to traditional values in Chinese society.

The backstory to Ne Zha 2’s remarkable box-office performance is a millennium of cultural integration. In this sense, Ne Zha 2’s success is a testament to that triumph.