Nezha 哪吒

Q: Who is Nezha in Journey to the West?

哪吒 Nezha (“The Third Prince”) — a heaven-sent power who ends the fight. The prince who cut his own flesh to settle a debt with his father, and whose second career is being the one who beheads monsters at the joint.

In Journey to the West 西遊記 (c. 1592) · a heaven-sent power who ends the fight · nicknamed 三太子 “The Third Prince”

The prince who cut his own flesh to settle a debt with his father, and whose second career is being the one who beheads monsters at the joint.

Body: lotus roots and a brick face, after he gave his flesh back
Carries: the universal ring and the fire wheels
Also: the executioner heaven sends when a king has cut off someone's head

The great deeds 大事記

ch. 4
The Three-Headed Vanguard Outdone
先鋒
He goes ahead of the army against the monkey, changes into a three-headed six-armed form, and is out-changed.
ch. 51
The Diamond Snare
戰兕牛
He fights the rhinoceros-ox with the fire wheels and loses a sword arm to the diamond snare.
ch. 83
First into the Bottomless Pit
斬妖
It is Nezha who goes down first into the Bottomless Pit, and who wants to finish the rat on the spot until his father's debt intervenes.

結局 The ending

He is the last figure in the book who still fights for the sheer administrative pleasure of it. Heaven never thanks him; he never asks to be thanked.

The book itself: why the monkey was pinned, which translation — The 500 years · The translations · The 81 trials

Nezha 哪吒

The great deeds 大事記

The Three-Headed Vanguard Outdone

The Diamond Snare

First into the Bottomless Pit

In the same episode 同難