Eight-armed Nezha suppresses the evil dragon! Where did the legend of the eight-armed Nezha from old Beijing come from?

Going west out of Shenwu Gate, there is a well blocking the road on the north bank of the moat, with a stone cover on it. It is said that if the well is opened, the chief eunuch has the power. In the early Qing Dynasty, some people advocated burying the well. The wind connoisseur said: "This well cannot be destroyed."

Beijing is the city of Nezha with three heads and six arms (now commonly known as Nezha), which is also the navel of Nezha. If a person has no navel, his physiology is lacking. ?Because it was sealed with a big stone. ?

This is the record left by the eunuch Xin Xiuming in the late Qing Dynasty in "Memories of the Old Eunuch".

It records many details of the Qing palace, and its authenticity is difficult to distinguish. This record shows that by the end of the Qing Dynasty at the latest, the legend that old Beijing was a Nezha city with eight arms (some say it was six arms) had been widely accepted.

In the 1950s, the famous scholar Jin Shoushen completed "The Legend of Beijing" and further refined this legend. Today's oral traditions are mostly based on this. In "The Legend of Beijing", When Zhu Di moved north, Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao drew a map of Beijing city according to Nezha to guard the evil dragon under the bitter sea of ​​Youzhou.

Of course, there are other legends that are not widely circulated. For example, when Zhu Di was King of Yan, he guarded Beiping and fought against Mongolia.

Yao Guangxiao, who was familiar with Beijing's feng shui, designed it to be an eight-armed Nezha, with Nezha's gun pointed directly at Mongolia.

Later Yao Guangxiao encouraged Zhu Di to fight for the throne, and told Zhu Di that he had turned Beijing's feng shui upside down, and that Nezha's gun had been turned upside down and pointed at Nanjing, which would surely become a big event.

The Eight-Armed Nezha Picture

The legend of Mr. Jin Shoushen states that when Liu Ji and Yao Guangxiao were planning the city of Beijing, they specially opened 11 gates because the three heads, six arms and two feet added up. Exactly 11.

The gate in the middle of the south is called Zhengyang Gate, which is Nezha’s head; the two wells in Zhengyang Gate are Nezha’s eyes; the Chongwen Gate and Dongbian Gate to the east of Zhengyang Gate are , Chaoyang Gate and Dongzhi Gate on the east side of the city are the four arms of Nezha's half body; Xuanwu Gate and Xibian Gate on the west side of Zhengyang Gate, Fucheng Gate and Xizhi Gate on the west side of the city are the four arms of Nezha's half body; Andingmen and Deshengmen in the north are Nezha's two feet.

As for internal correspondence, Mr. Jin’s records are not as detailed as those written by the British author Arlington and others in “Looking for Old Beijing”. According to the latter's records: the front door is Nezha's head, Qipan Street is the nose, Zhonghua Gate is the mouth, the Shuangjing south of Qipan Street is the eye, Chongwen Gate is the right shoulder, Xuanwu Gate is the left shoulder, Fucheng Gate is the left hand, and the White Tower is The fire-pointed spear, Donghua Gate and Xihua Gate are the hips, Dongzhimen and Xizhimen are the knees, Anding Gate and Deshengmen are the feet (the two temples below are the Hot Wheels), the red wall of the Forbidden City is the Huntian Ling, The Meridian Gate is the heart, and Shichahai is the bladder?

The earliest written record so far comes from "Chinese Myths and Legends" by Englishman Warner, saying that when Zhu Di left Nanjing for Beijing, Liu Bowen gave him a tips bag, which contained Old Beijing urban design plan.