Nezha

A ring of gold, with no seam, no beginning and no end, gleams as if it has just been forged. Beside it lies a soft length of red silk, red as an evening sky, so long and wide that it could wrap around a body with layers to spare. The two things rest quietly side by side, as if they had been ready long before anyone thought to give them a name.

They were with a little boy from the very first moment he came into the world, even before his parents could give him a name.

His mother once dreamed that a Taoist priest walked into her room and told her to receive a child from Heaven. When she woke, she was with child. It was a strange pregnancy, unusually long, and it kept the parents waiting anxiously. When the day of the birth came, what arrived was not an ordinary baby. It was a round ball of flesh, rosy red, rolling back and forth on the bed. The father, the general Li Jing, was frightened. He swung his sword and touched the strange ball of flesh.

The ball split open in two. Out of it stepped a little boy. He did not cry like other newborns. He could already walk, and he skipped and hopped right away. On his right arm was a shining gold ring, which people in later times called the Universe Ring. Wrapped around his body was the soft red silk. These were the same two things that lay waiting at the very start of the story.

Li Jing and his wife named their son Nezha. As soon as he could walk, he climbed all over the yard. As soon as he could run, his mischief was more than anyone could stop, and his parents loved him and worried about him at once. Not long after, a Taoist priest came to the house. He called himself Taiyi Zhenren. He said the boy was born for a great task, but his temper was still wild, and he needed a teacher to shape him. Li Jing agreed and placed his son in the priest's care.

In China, people have retold this tale for generations. They say that at seven years old, Nezha was already a strong, quick boy with an unusual power inside him. One hot summer noon, he slipped off to a winding river near his home. He took off his shirt and waded into the cool water. In the middle of the stream, he untied the red silk, dipped it in, and swished it back and forth to wash it. The silk stirred the surface of the river. Rings of waves spread farther and farther, all the way down to the deep bottom.

At the bottom of the Eastern Sea stood the splendid crystal palace of the Dragon King. The waves reached it and shook a whole corner of the palace. The Dragon King grew angry. He sent one of the generals who guarded the palace up to the surface to see what was going on. The general rose from the water and saw a boy splashing about without a care. He shouted at him, then charged with his ax raised. Quick as lightning, Nezha stepped aside and struck one blow with the gold ring on his arm. The general staggered and dropped his ax. Then he sank away into the deep water.

Before things could settle, a roar rose from the middle of the river. The son of the Dragon King came charging up, riding a water beast, with a halberd in his hand. He demanded to know who had dared to hurt the guard of his father's palace. Then he brought the halberd down. Nezha flung the red silk into the air, and his attacker reeled and lost his balance. Then, in the same motion, Nezha struck him with the gold ring, right in the middle of the forehead. At that very moment, the human shape of the Dragon King's son vanished. In its place was his true form, a golden dragon, and then the dragon collapsed.

The Dragon King heard that his son had been beaten until his true form showed. Boiling with rage, he went straight to the house of Li Jing to demand an answer. When Li Jing heard the story, he went pale. He could not understand what terrible trouble his son had caused. Nezha, though, was not afraid at all. He calmly told the whole tale of the river, as if it had been an ordinary game. Hearing it, Li Jing grew even more worried. He knew that angering a Dragon King was no small matter.

Sure enough, the Dragon King declared that he would go up to Heaven and report to the Jade Emperor. In folk belief, the Jade Emperor is the ruler of Heaven. The Dragon King would ask for a heavy punishment to fall on the whole family of Li Jing. When he heard this, Nezha went to find his teacher. The priest listened and did not scold him. He quietly used his magic to make the boy invisible. Then he showed him the way straight to the gate of Heaven, to wait there for the Dragon King before he could step inside.

The Dragon King had only just arrived and had not yet said a word when Nezha burst out of his invisible cover and blocked his path. The two fought right in front of the gate of Heaven. Nezha struck again and again with the Universe Ring. He seized the scales on the dragon's body and pulled and pulled without letting go, until the Dragon King gave in and begged for mercy. Nezha asked for only one thing. The Dragon King must swear never to go up and report this to the Jade Emperor again. Trembling, the Dragon King swore every oath he could. Only then did Nezha let go.

From that day on, the river where the story began lay calm again, its waves still and its water smooth, as if nothing had ever happened. The Universe Ring still rested on Nezha's right arm, and the red silk still wrapped around him. Neither seemed so strange anymore. They were no longer just things a newborn child had brought into the world. They were the marks of a boy who dared to stand up and carry the trouble he had caused, all the way to the end. The noon sun still spread gold over the water, glinting and smooth, as if the river itself knew that, here by the water at least, things had settled for now.