Lady Yin is a character featured within the famed classic Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi. She is the wife of Li Jing and they have three sons, Jinzha, Muzha, and Nezha. She played a prominent role in the nurture of Nezha. In Xinchu Erlang Pishan Jiumu Quanduan (新出二郎劈山救母全段), a Qing dynasty folk storytelling manuscript,she is said to be the second daughter of the Jade Emperor. However, in the Fengshen Yanyi novel and subsequent adaptations, she is just a normal human woman.
Her full name is not given in the Fengshen Yanyi, only her surname, Yin. She is called Lady Suzhi (素知夫人) in the Ming dynasty religious book .
Throughout the Nezha birth arc in Fengshen Yanyi, Lady Yin was pregnant again after three years and six months without giving birth. One day when she was sleeping, she dreamed that a deity Taiyi Zhenren put something into her arms; she woke up with pain in her abdomen and gave birth to a meat ball in the incense chamber. With a round like a wheel, Li Jing slashed at the meat ball with a sharp sword, and jumped out a child.[1] [2]
She would always be known to reflect many acts of kindness to her third son—no matter what he truly did. Thus, Lady Yin would be seen protecting Nezha at many times throughout the novel, even when he performed horrendous actions such as the killing of Ao Guang's third son, Ao Bing. After Nezha had given his own body as a sacrifice to Ao Guang in order to protect his family, Lady Yin would end up erecting a temple atop the Green Screen Hill as a stationing area for Nezha's spirit (this was because Nezha continuously pleaded to her in her sleep). Lady Yin would be scolded by Li Jing profusely following this point.