Notscha

The eldest daughter of the Ruler of Heaven was married to the great general Li Dsing, and she had three sons: Gintscha, Mutscha, and Notscha. Before Notscha was born, she dreamed that a Taoist priest walked into her room and said, “Quickly, receive the Heavenly Son!” At once a shining pearl glowed inside her, and she woke up frightened.

When the baby arrived, he looked like a ball of flesh spinning round and round like a wheel, and the room filled with strange perfume and red light. Li Dsing thought it was an evil spirit and split the ball with his sword. Out jumped a little boy glowing red all over, with a delicate face as white as snow. A golden ring circled his right arm, and a length of shimmering crimson silk was wound about his legs. Li Dsing felt sorry for the child and spared him, and his wife loved the boy dearly.

Three days later, while friends were feasting to celebrate, a Taoist priest came in. “I am the Great One,” he said. “This boy is the bright Pearl of the Beginning of Things, given to you as a son. But he is wild and will kill many men, so I will take him as my pupil and try to tame him.” Li Dsing bowed his thanks, and the priest vanished.

When Notscha was seven, he ran away from home to the River of Nine Bends, where green water flowed between rows of weeping willows. It was a hot day, so he waded in, unwound his crimson silk, and swished it through the water to wash it. Every swish shook the crystal palace of the Dragon-King of the Eastern Sea to its foundations. The Dragon-King sent a fearsome sea-creature to see what was wrong. The creature began scolding the boy. “What a funny-looking beast,” said Notscha, “and it can talk!” Furious, the creature swung an ax at him. Notscha dodged and threw his golden ring, which struck the creature on the head and killed it. “Now he has made my ring dirty,” laughed Notscha, and sat down on a stone to wash it.

The palace shook again, and a watchman reported that a boy had killed the messenger. So the Dragon-King sent his own son, riding a beast that split the waves. “What a big wave!” said Notscha as the water came thundering up, and out of it rose an armed rider shouting, “Who killed my servant?”

“He tried to kill me, so I killed him. What of it?” said Notscha. “Tell me who you are before we fight.”

“I am the son of the Dragon-King.”

“And I am Notscha, son of General Li Dsing. Don’t make me angry, or I will skin you and that old mud-fish your father too!”

The dragon prince charged. Notscha flung his crimson silk into the air, where it flashed like a fireball and knocked the prince off his mount. Then the boy struck him on the forehead with his golden ring, and the prince turned back into his true shape, a golden dragon, and fell dead. “I’ve heard dragon sinews make good cord,” said Notscha. “I’ll take one home for my father to tie his armor with.” And he pulled out the dragon’s back sinew and carried it home.

The Dragon-King had already stormed off to Li Dsing’s house to demand the boy. “You must be mistaken,” said Li Dsing. “My son is only seven.” Just then Notscha ran in. “Father, I’ve brought you a dragon sinew to tie up your armor!” The Dragon-King burst into tears and curses, swore he would report Li Dsing to the Ruler of Heaven, and left snorting with rage. Li Dsing and his wife began to weep. “Why cry?” said Notscha. “I’ll ask my master what to do,” and he disappeared.

The Great One told him he must stop the dragon before it could complain in Heaven, and by magic set him down, invisible, beside Heaven’s gate. It was early; the gate was still shut and no guard was there, but the dragon was already climbing up. Notscha knocked him down with the golden ring and began to thrash him. He ripped the dragon’s fine robe, tore off some scales under his left arm until they bled, and would not stop until the dragon begged for mercy and promised not to complain. Then Notscha made him turn into a little green snake, tucked him in his sleeve, and took him home. But as soon as the snake came out of the sleeve, it changed back into a man, swore a terrible revenge on Li Dsing, and vanished in a flash of lightning.

Now Li Dsing was truly angry with his son, and Notscha’s mother sent the boy to the back of the house to keep out of his father’s way. Notscha slipped off to his master for advice and then went home. There he found all the Dragon-Kings of the four seas gathered in an uproar; they had tied up his parents to punish them. “I will take the punishment for what I did!” Notscha shouted. “My parents are innocent. What do you want?”

“A life for a life,” said the dragon.

“Then I will give up my own,” said Notscha. He did, and the dragons went away satisfied. His mother buried him, weeping.

But Notscha’s soul floated through the air until the wind carried it to the Great One’s cave. “Appear to your mother,” the master told it. “Forty miles from your home stands a green cliff. She must build you a shrine there. After three years of receiving people’s incense, you will have a human body again.” Notscha came to his mother in a dream, and she woke in tears. When she told Li Dsing, he was angry. “The cursed boy got what he deserved. You dream of him because you keep thinking about him. Ignore it.” But Notscha came to her every night the moment she shut her eyes, more and more urgently, until at last she secretly built him a temple.

Notscha worked great wonders there. Every prayer was answered, and people came from far away to burn incense. After half a year, Li Dsing rode past the cliff during an army drill and saw crowds swarming over the hill like ants. He asked what was there. “A new god who works so many miracles that people come from everywhere,” he was told. Nobody dared hide the god’s name. Li Dsing spurred up the hill, and there over the door was written “Notscha’s Shrine,” with Notscha’s statue inside looking just as he had in life. “Alive, you brought trouble on your parents,” said Li Dsing. “Dead, you fool the people. Disgraceful!” He smashed the statue with his whip, had the temple burned, gave the worshippers a mild scolding, and rode home.

Notscha’s spirit had been away from the shrine that day. When he came back, the spirit of the hill told him everything, and he hurried to his master in tears. The Great One was angry too. “This is Li Dsing’s fault. You gave your body back to your parents; after that you were no concern of his. Why should he rob you of your incense?” He made a body out of lotus plants, breathed life into it, and closed Notscha’s soul inside. “Arise!” he cried. There was a breath, and Notscha sprang up as a small boy once more. The master gave him a magic fiery lance and two spinning wheels under his feet, the wheel of wind and the wheel of fire, so that he could rise and fall through the air. He also gave him a panther-skin bag for his golden ring and silk.

Notscha had made up his mind to punish his father. When no one was watching, he went thundering on his wheels to Li Dsing’s house. Li Dsing could not stand against him and fled. He was nearly worn out when his second son, Mutscha, a disciple of the holy Pu Hain, came to help him from the Cave of the White Crane. The brothers quarreled and fought, and Mutscha was beaten, and Notscha raced after his father again.

At the last moment the holy Wen Dschu of the Hill of the Five Dragons, teacher of the eldest son Gintscha, hid Li Dsing in his cave. Notscha demanded his father. “Be as wild as you like elsewhere,” said Wen Dschu, “but not here.” When Notscha turned his fiery lance on him, Wen Dschu stepped back, shook a seven-petaled lotus from his sleeve, and tossed it into the air. A whirlwind rose, clouds and mist blotted out the light, sand and earth flew up, and then the wind fell with a crash. Notscha fainted. When he woke, he was tied to a golden pillar with three golden straps and could not move. Wen Dschu called Gintscha and told him to give his unruly brother a good beating, and Notscha had to stand there grinding his teeth. He saw the Great One floating past and cried, “Save me, Master!”—but the Great One paid no attention, went into the cave, and thanked Wen Dschu for teaching the boy a hard lesson. Then they called Notscha in, told him to make peace with his father, sent father and son away, and sat down to play chess.

The moment Notscha was free, his temper flared and he chased his father yet again. This time the ancient Buddha of the Radiance of the Light stepped in. When Notscha tried to fight him, the Buddha raised his arm, and a pagoda formed out of swirling red clouds and closed around the boy. The Buddha laid both hands on it, and fire rose inside until Notscha screamed for mercy. He had to promise to beg his father’s pardon and obey him from then on. Only then was he let out. The Buddha gave the pagoda to Li Dsing and taught him a magic saying that would give him power over Notscha. That is why Li Dsing is called the Pagoda-bearing King of Heaven.

Later, Li Dsing and his three sons helped King Wu of the Dschou dynasty overthrow the tyrant Dschou-Sin, and no one could stand against them. Only once did a sorcerer manage to wound Notscha, in the left arm—a wound that would have killed anyone else. The Great One carried him to his cave, healed him, and gave him three cups of the wine of the gods and three fire-dates. When Notscha had eaten and drunk, there was a crack at his left side and a new arm grew out. He stood speechless, eyes bulging with fright, as more arms and two more heads sprouted, until he had three heads and eight arms. “What does this mean?” he cried. The Great One only laughed. “All is as it should be. Now you will be truly strong.” And he taught him a charm to make the extra heads and arms appear or vanish as he wished.

When the tyrant had been destroyed, Li Dsing and his three sons were taken up into heaven while still alive and given seats among the gods.

Where this tale comes from

“Notscha” is one of the Legends of the Gods in Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921). Martens’s preface names it, together with “The Ape Sun Wu Kung,” as one of the book’s summits of fantasy. Notscha is the child-god better known today as Nezha.

Wilhelm’s long note proposes a connection between Li Dsing and Indra and speculates that the pagoda might derive from a thunderbolt. Those are the editor’s interpretations, not an established origin demonstrated by this chapter. The note also identifies Wen Dschu with Manjushri and the Buddha of the Radiance of the Light with Dipamkara, showing the collection’s mixture of Daoist and Buddhist names. The source is full of battles; this page tells them all but keeps the violence brief, and Notscha’s death is told simply as giving up his life.

Read the original: Richard Wilhelm’s Chinese Fairy Book, Martens translation (Project Gutenberg)

For older readers: repeated killings and mutilation, a child’s death under a demand for retribution, rebirth, family violence, beatings and confinement in fire. The magical return is not a model for responding to guilt, and obedience forced by pain is not the same as trust.

Reading the story closely

Notscha’s power is rarely matched by proportionate judgment, but the adults do not offer one consistent alternative. The Great One first helps him silence a complaint, later supports his rebirth, and then approves punishment for attacking his father. Li Dsing destroys a shrine rather than resolving their conflict. Track these decisions to distinguish teaching self-control from winning a struggle for authority.

Compare the golden ring, lotus body and pagoda. Who provides each object or form, what does it make possible, and who controls its use? The last device leaves the father able to threaten his son again. Their later shared military service ends the plot, but the text does not show a conversation in which either acknowledges the harm he caused the other.

Think about it

• What gifts is Notscha born with, and how does he use them at the river?
• Why does Li Dsing destroy Notscha’s shrine, and what does the Great One think about it?
• How do the teachers shift between protecting Notscha, enabling revenge and forcing obedience? Is the final agreement a reconciliation or a threat-backed truce?

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• Yang Oerlang — another young warrior god from Wilhelm’s legends
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• The Fire-God — more gods and battles from Chinese legend