Chinese Mythology · God / Legendary Figure
哪吒 · Nézhā
The lotus-reborn boy-god who defied a dragon and repaid his own father in flesh.
哪吒
Nezha arrives as a ball of flesh after a pregnancy of three and a half years, third son of the general Li Jing; his fullest story is told in the Ming novel Investiture of the Gods (封神演义). He kills the Dragon King's son, and to spare his family from the Dragon King's revenge he returns his own flesh and bones to his parents — after which his master resurrects him with a body made of lotus root. He rides Wind-Fire Wheels and wields the Universe Ring and Red Armillary Sash.
His self-sacrifice — giving his body back to his parents to settle his own debt, then being reborn from lotus — is the defining act of filial atonement and rebellion in the myth.
The common Mandarin reading is Nézhā; you may see an older literary reading, Nuózhā, in scholarly sources.
The animated films Ne Zha (2019) and Ne Zha 2 (2025) drove a global surge — Ne Zha 2 became the highest-grossing animated film ever made, the first past $2 billion.
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