Zhu Bajie- Chinese GodDeity"Pigsy"

Fall from Heaven

Zhu Bajie was not always a pig. In his former life he was Tianpeng Yuanshuai, the Marshal of the Heavenly Canopy, who commanded one hundred thousand heavenly sailors of the Milky Way. His downfall came at a celestial banquet hosted by the Jade Emperor. Tianpeng drank too much immortal wine and tried to seduce the Moon Goddess Chang'e. The Jade Emperor ordered him beaten with two thousand strokes of the iron rod and cast down to the mortal world.

Something went wrong during his descent. Whether through cosmic accident or his own spirit being distracted by desire even as it fell, he was born into a pig's womb. He emerged with a pig's head on a half-human body, with jutting tusks and enormous flapping ears. In a rage at his new form, he killed his pig-mother and the rest of the litter, then took up residence in a mountain cave as a demon.

He kept one thing from heaven: the nine-toothed iron rake, forged by Laozi himself in the celestial furnace. The stars of the Dipper provided its body and nine teeth. It weighed 5,048 jin and could tear through demon flesh and supernatural barriers alike.

Gao Village

The former marshal lived in Cloud Ladder Cave on Fuling Mountain, terrorizing the countryside and demanding vast quantities of food. He forced himself upon the Gao family of Gao Village, taking their daughter Gao Cuilan as his captive wife. By night he resumed his monstrous pig form. By day he worked the fields with superhuman strength, consuming as much as he produced.

When Xuanzang and Sun Wukong passed through the area, Sun Wukong devised a trick: he disguised himself as Gao Cuilan and waited in the bridal chamber. When the pig-demon came to his "wife," Sun Wukong revealed himself. They fought through the night sky, trading blows from cloud to cloud, until Zhu Bajie was beaten.

After his defeat, Sun Wukong learned that Guanyin had already visited the pig-demon and given him the name Zhu Wuneng, "Pig Awakened to Power," instructing him to wait for the scripture pilgrim. Xuanzang accepted him as a disciple and renamed him Zhu Bajie, the Pig of the Eight Prohibitions, after the Buddhist precepts he would spend the entire journey failing to keep.

On the Road West

Through fourteen years and eighty-one tribulations, Zhu Bajie proved both an asset and an endless source of trouble. His appetite was legendary. In one episode he devoured an entire melon field while Sun Wukong scouted ahead. He was easily distracted by beautiful women, many of whom were demons in disguise. When the group reached the Kingdom of Women, where the queen offered Xuanzang a throne and marriage, Zhu Bajie had to be physically restrained from accepting the arrangement himself. His first instinct in any crisis was to suggest dividing the luggage and going home.

He and Sun Wukong bickered constantly. When Zhu Bajie convinced Xuanzang that Sun Wukong had killed three innocent people, actually the White Bone Demon in three disguises, Xuanzang expelled the Monkey King. The pilgrims were captured almost immediately. When the Yellow Robe Demon transformed Xuanzang into a tiger, Zhu Bajie flew to the Water Curtain Cave and begged Sun Wukong to return. No one else could save them, and he knew it.

At Flaming Mountain he fought alongside Sun Wukong against the Bull Demon King. Against the Spider Demons his rake proved decisive. For all his complaining and scheming to quit, he never actually left. He stayed through every tribulation.

The Altar Cleanser

At the journey's end, the Buddha did not make Zhu Bajie a Buddha. His attachments to worldly pleasures had never been overcome. Instead, with what the novel presents as gentle humor, the Buddha appointed him Altar Cleanser: the one responsible for consuming the food offerings left at Buddhist altars throughout the world.

Zhu Bajie protested that his companions received grander titles. Then he realized the position meant he would eat well for eternity. He accepted.