Sta tioned at the Chentown Pass on the coast of North east China were Gen eral Li Jing and his fam ily. His wife had been ex pect ing their third child for three and a half years. With each pass ing day, their wor ries grew deeper. In the sixth month of the third year, the gen eral’s wife fi nally went into labor. When Li Jing heard no cry ing from her cham ber, he thought the baby had been still born. That would not have been a sur prise at all, for what child could sur vive such a pro tracted preg nancy!

The re al ity was even worse. In stead of a baby, dead or alive, the new born was a liv ing ball of flesh! Gen eral Li Jing thought of it as a demon and de cided to destroy it. He was about to halve it with his sword when his wife stopped him. She told him about a dream she had had the night be fore she gave birth to the fleshy ball.

“I dreamed of an el derly Tao ist,” she began. “The Tao ist came to me, swept his magic whisk across my belly, and told me to accept the baby and name him Nezha,” she said in a sin gle breath. She begged her hus band to spare the life of their son, even though it was an ugly ball of flesh.

The gen eral, how ever, would not lis ten. With a swoop of his blade, he sliced the ball open. To ev ery one’s sur prise, when the ball split, a lit tle boy sprang out, with a daz zling red light in his wake. No sooner had he landed on the floor than he grew into a boy of six. When he saw the general and his wife, he im me di ately held out his hands and called out, “Mom! Dad!” The fa ther ac cepted the boy as his son, al though he re sented the strange man ner of his birth. As re quested by the Taoist that the mother had met in her dream, they named the boy Nezha.

Sud denly there was a com mo tion out side the house. Be fore Gen eral Li could rush out to see what was hap pen ing, a ser vant dashed in and re ported, “An el derly man sud denly ap peared in our court yard on the back of a crane. He said he wanted to see his dis ci ple, Nezha.”

When she fol lowed her hus band into the court yard, the mother im me diately recog nized the el -derly man. It was the Tao ist from her dream. The Tao ist told them that his name was Taiyi Zhenren, or the True Pri mor dial Tao ist Mas ter. He had come to see Nezha, who had dashed out into the yard ahead of his parents and stood beside the Tao ist mas ter. With the par ents’ con sent, Taiyi Zhenren placed a large ring around Nezha’s neck and a long damask silk rib bon over his shoul ders. The ring and the rib bon would be come his magic weap ons to pro tect him from pos si ble dan gers.

“Son, use them spar ingly and only to the good of your fel low peo ple,” Taiyi Zhenren told Nezha as he sailed away on the back of the big bird.

That year, a se rious drought hit the Chentown re gion. For months and months, not a sin gle drop of rain fell. Peo ple were close to star va tion. Nezha asked his mother what had hap pened. His mother told him that the cul prit was the vi cious Dragon King of the East Sea, who de manded that each day the peo ple of Chentown sac ri fice a lit tle boy and girl at his al tar in the tem ple ded i cated to him. The chil dren would be his spe cial meal. When peo ple re fused to surren der their chil dren, the Dragon King stopped rain ing. He also asked other dragon kings to hold their rain wa ter. As peo ple would rather suf fer a nat u ral di saster than give up their ba bies, the Dragon King sent a yecha (a man-eat ing mon ster) to roam the re gion and snatch them for him.

One after noon the blaz ing sun was scorching the earth as usual. Nezha went to the sea shore to swim, a way to fend off the sum mer heat. When he ar rived, a boy and a girl were look ing for sea shells on the beach. Sud denly the yecha emerged from the sea. He had seen the two chil dren play ing from

be neath the wa ter. His sud den ap pear ance ter ri fied and par a lyzed the chil dren. Be fore the yecha could get hold of them, Nezha stopped him.

“Who do you think you are?” said the mon ster in dis dain. “I’ll take the three of you to gether to the Dragon King.”

“Stop blus ter ing! I’m not go ing to hurt you if you leave the chil dren alone,” said Nezha.

“But I want to hurt you, you lit tle ras cal!” roared the yecha as he charged Nezha, his pair of bronze hammers held high and ready to fall upon Nezha’s head. Nezha fended off the at tack with his ring. This was the first time he had tried his magic weapon. He re ally did not mean to use it, for he re -membered what his mas ter Taiyi Zhenren had told him. The power of the ring amazed him: a mere touch on the poor yecha’s head broke it into pieces.

En raged at the loss of his hench man at the hands of a boy, the Dragon King dis patched his third and favor ite son to cap ture Nezha. The Dragon King wanted to see what kind of a child Nezha was and to mete out the se ver est pun ishment against him

The dragon prince did not take Nezha se ri ously at all, think ing that he could easily cut the boy in half with his sword. He challenged Nezha to a fight. Nezha, how ever, trying to avoid a bloody fight, was un will ing to en gage his opponent.

“Go tell your fa ther to give up his evildo ing and mend his ways, or I’ll break his neck as I smashed the head of the yecha monster!” warned Nezha. Hu mil i ated, the dragon prince was ea ger to de stroy the lit tle boy. Brandishing his sword, he swooped down on Nezha.

To meet the dragon prince’s at tack, Nezha let loose one end of the red damask silk and, hold ing the other end tight, he flung it again and again. The silk ex tended and swirled un til it enwrapped the body of the dragon prince. With a gentle jerk, Nezha brought him down to the beach, his dragon head plunging into the sand. When Nezha pulled the dragon prince out, he was al ready dead of a bro ken neck. Once again, Nezha learned the un ex pected lethality of his magic weap ons. As a warn ing to the Dragon King of the East Sea, Nezha pulled a ten don out of the dragon prince’s body and tossed it into the sea.

The death of the dragon prince shocked and grieved the Dragon King. To avenge his son, he called in all his broth ers, the Dragon Kings of the South, North, and West Seas. To gether they poured tor ren tial rain down on Chentown and its surround ing ar eas. The in ces sant down pour caused a big flood, which threat ened to dec i mate the peo ple al ready dev as tated by many months’ drought.

Flying above the house of Gen eral Li, the Dragon King of the East Sea de manded that he give up his son, Nezha, and said that in re turn he would call off both the flood and the drought. Caught be -tween the plight of his peo ple and the fate of his son, the gen eral did not know what to do. Fi nally, he made up his mind and agreed to kill Nezha, only to be stopped by his wife.

“How can you trust the vicious dragon? What if he won’t keep his prom ise even af ter you kill our son?”

“But if we don’t give him up, our peo ple will all be drowned. At least we will have a chance by get ting rid of him,” General Li re sponded.

Nezha could not bear see ing his par ents men tally and emo tion ally tor mented by the dif fi cult po si tion in which he thought he had placed them. Nei ther could he stand the peo ple per ish ing be -cause of his ac tion or inaction. Know ing the lim i ta tions of his power in front of the for mi da ble dragon al li ance, Nezha had only one op tion: sui cide.

“Lis ten, you dirty drag ons! Do as you prom ise or I’ll go af ter you in my death,” said Nezha, stand ing firmly in the rain be side his fa ther. As he fin ished, he snatched the sword from the trem bling hand of his fa ther and slit his throat.

As Nezha’s body fell to the ground, the Tao ist mas ter Taiyi Zhenren sent for his spirit. The Tao -ist’s as sis tants brought Nezha’s spirit to his Golden Light Cave on Qianyuan Moun tain, where Taiyi Zhenren reconstructed Nezha’s body with lotus leaves and blos soms. Then he merged Nezha’s spirit with his new body. This time, in ad dition to the ring and the silk rib bon, he armed Nezha with a spear as his new weapon and a fenghuolun (a pair of wind-and-fire wheeled shoes) as his means of trans -por ta tion. The Tao ist master also en abled him to trans form into a gi ant with three heads and six arms when necessary. The new born Nezha was much more pow er ful. He sought out the Dragon King.

The Dragon King of the East Sea had never ex pected to see Nezha alive again, and more for mi -da ble. With his new pow ers, Nezha had no prob lem overcoming the Dragon King. Sub dued, the dragon vowed not to do any more harm to the peo ple of Chentown.