Zhu Bajie is one of Tang Sanzang’s principal disciples in Journey to the West. He was originally Marshal Tianpeng, commander of the heavenly river forces, but after violating celestial law while drunk he was cast down from Heaven and mistakenly reborn in the body of a pig, giving him his familiar half-human, half-porcine appearance.
In the mortal world he lives for a time at Cloud-Road Cave on Mount Fuling under the name Zhu Ganglie. Guanyin eventually converts him and instructs him to wait for the scripture pilgrim. When Tang Sanzang’s journey reaches Gao Village, Sun Wukong subdues Zhu Ganglie, and the monk accepts him as a disciple under the name Bajie.
Zhu Bajie fights with the Nine-Toothed Rake and possesses enormous physical strength as well as supernatural transformations and cloud-traveling abilities. He is gluttonous, sleepy, reluctant to suffer hardship, and frequently suggests abandoning the journey. Yet when genuine danger arrives, he repeatedly fights beside Sun Wukong and Sha Heshang against demons and other supernatural enemies.
After the long pilgrimage reaches its destination, Zhu Bajie completes the scripture mission and receives the title Altar Cleanser. His combination of formidable power, comic weakness, appetite, complaint, and enduring loyalty makes him one of the most human and immediately recognizable members of the pilgrimage.
