Red Boy, nicknamed the "Holy Infant King“ or "Boy Sage King" (圣婴大王 shèng yīng dà wáng), is a character from Journey to the West (西游记 xī yóu jì) and is the son of the Bull-Demon King (牛魔王 niú mó wáng) and Princess Iron Fan (铁扇公主 tiě shàn gōng zhǔ).
Armed with the Zhang Ba Fire-tipped Spear (丈八火尖枪 zhàng bā huǒ jiān qiāng), Red Boy is a skilled martial artist and worthy advisary. He cultivated himself for 300 hundred years on Fire Mountain (火焰山 huǒ yàn shān) and learned to master the True Fire of Samādhi. As a result, he is able to breath fire from his mouth and exhale smoke through his nose.
Despite being over 300 years old, Red Boy can never physically age beyond 8 years old. When she was pregnant with him, his mother, Princess Iron Fan, asked Tai Shang Lao Jun (太上老君 tài shàng lǎo jūn) how she could ensure her child would never age beyond 18 years old. He told her that in order to achieve this, she would need to focus her Dan Tian Qi (丹田之气 dān tián zhī qì)1 on the fetus for a period of 18 months before giving birth. However, during an ecounter with the Monkey King (孙悟空 sūn wù kōng) he accidently bumped into her and caused her to go into labour at just 8 months.
1 dan tian is considered to be a center of qi or life-force energy and is a central concept in Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Nei Gong, as well as many other traditional Chinese practices.