Zhu Bajie’s Temple at Xizhuang 保山西庄豬八戒寺

Pigsy as Zhu Bajie, with his Nine-Pronged Muck Rake. Photos either side show an older statue destroyed around 1970 during the Cultural Revolution

About 10km northeast of Baoshan, Xizhuang village (西庄) hosts China’s only temple to the pig spirit Zhu Bajie (豬八戒), better known in English as Pigsy. He’s a major character in the lively sixteenth-century Chinese classic Journey to the West, a fantastical retelling of the exploits of the real Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang (602–664), who spent seventeen years travelling to India to study Buddhism at its source.

After Xuanzang returned to China in 645 he spent the rest of his life under Imperial patronage editing a huge trove of Buddhist scriptures brought back from his journey. The Great Wild Goose Pagoda at Xi’an – still standing – was built as a fireproof storehouse for them.

The author of Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’en (1506–1582) collected a mass of folktales that had grown up around Xuanzang’s travels and wove them into a hundred-chapter novel. In it Xuanzang is depicted as terminally naive (in real life he must have been incredibly intelligent, tough and determined) but the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guanyin, sends him three acolytes as escorts: the brilliant, unruly monkey king Sun Wukong; Pigsy, gluttonous, lecherous and lazy but brave; and the mysterious Sandy, a former river monster.

Pigsy and his trusty rake. Print only sold at the temple

As most chapters follow a set formula – Xuanzang captured by demons, the others working out how to rescue him – much of the novel’s spark comes from the competitive comic banter between Monkey and Pigsy. Probably the best English versions are Arthur Waley’s abridged translation, Monkey, and the dubbed Japanese TV series from the 1970s – both of which capture the absurd, playful humour of the original.

Pigsy was originally the Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng, until he got drunk at a Peach Banquet and molested the moon goddess Chang’e. For this he was beaten and banished to Earth, reborn as Zhu Ganglie (the Iron-Haired Hog) with “dark face, stubbly hair, long nose and big ears”. According to a tablet at the temple, he grew up on the outskirts of Xizhuang at Yunzhan Cave (云栈洞; now Reclining Buddha Cave 卧佛洞, a small cavern filled by an alabaster Buddha statue and painted arhat figures).

Front of Reclining Buddha Cave, where Pigsy grew up. The cave itself is set into the short cliff at the back

He proved a difficult, rowdy youth until one day Guanyin appeared, revealed his past incarnation and fall from grace, and foretold the arrival of Xuanzang on his journey west; by helping him achieve enlightenment Pigsy could atone for his karma. A repentant Pigsy immediately promised to reform, deciding from then on “to suppress evil and promote good deeds”.

Nearby Old Gao Village (高老庄) was the home of the wealthy landowner Gao Yuanwai (高员外), whose unmarried daughter was called Cuilan (翠兰). One day there was a tremendous storm which knocked over a towering tree outside Gao Yuanwai’s home, blocking the entrance. Undaunted, Pigsy simply picked up the thousand-pound tree and laid it across a nearby stream, so that locals could cross without getting their feet wet. Impressed by his strength and selflessness, Gao decided to marry Cuilan to Pigsy.

“Bajie Temple”. The gatepost couplets in gold on black read “Journey to the West says that myths come from folklore; Wu Cheng’en wrote that Bajie originated in Xizhuang”

The young newlyweds got on well, Cuilan attending to housework while Pigsy worked tirelessly on his in-laws’ farm, not even taking a break during the day to return home to rest, but bathing and drinking wherever he happened to be in the mountain forests. His nine-pronged muck rake turned the hardest soil into friable, fertile farmland, and soon people began referring to the area as “Pigsy’s Fields”.

One day Xuanzang appeared with Monkey, still in the early stages of their travels. According to the novel, by this time the Gaos were ignoring Pigsy’s merits, instead complaining of his vast appetite and the shame of having such an ugly son-in-law. They asked Xuanzang to drive him away, but Pigsy begged to become his disciple; he was renamed Zhu Bajie (Hog of Eight Prohibitions), and joined Xuanzang on the journey to India.

Although in the novel Cuilan seems glad to be rid of Pigsy and returns willingly to her parents’ home, local lore has it that the pair were greatly attached to each other and couldn’t bear to part. So Pigsy planted three banyan seedlings and asked Xuanzang to bless them, hoping that they would grow strong and provide his wife with a permanent memorial to him. They came to be known as the “Three Fate Trees” (三缘樹). Before leaving, Xuanzang renamed Old Gao Village as Xizhuang, “West Village”, in honour of finding a disciple here on his travels westwards.

Bus stop opposite the temple. Pigsy, Monkey, and two otherwise unknown characters waiting for the number #23

And so back to Pigsy’s temple. Today Xizhuang is reached through Baoshan’s rural-industrial fringes, the roadside a run of concrete houses and overhead pylons tangled with cables and wires. Some believe the temple dates back nearly to Xuanzang’s day, but it’s more likely to have been founded during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The temple forecourt acts as a car park and it’s still home to three truly ancient banyan trees, apparently the very ones blessed by Xuanzang.

At the entrance gate couplets proclaim “Journey to the West says that myths come from folklore; Wu Cheng’en wrote that Bajie originated in Xizhuang” (西遊記說神話来自民间; 吴承恩写八戒源于西庄). A lady here sells jiama folk prints of Pigsy and his nine-pronged rake.

Inside, the temple is formed from two small, slightly shambolic courtyards one behind the other, the halls built of timber frame and plaster with overlapping locally-made grey rooftiles. The first hall is split between local deities and the military god of wealth Zhao Gongming on his black tiger; a side passage leads to the rear courtyard which features a tiny crescent fish pond fed by a dragon-headed water spout.

Shrine to the heavenly Altar Cleaner

At the very back is a hall to Guanyin, while Pigsy’s shrine fills the long open gallery to the right, where his brightly painted life-sized statue stands holding a nine-pronged muck rake. Couplets here read: “The best intention is to be honest and serve the public; The greatest magical power is loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness” (最佳心意不過亷漯奉公; 莫大神通全忠孝仁義).

Cuilan is also comemmorated in the temple’s front hall. The story goes that after Pigsy left to follow Xuanzang she pined away and died. As a spirit, she was unhappy that she had no descendants to attend to her memory, so Guanyin appointed her a Patron of Childbirth. Her statue sits next to one of her father.

In Journey to the West Pigsy never quite sheds his very human shortcomings; and his complete lack of interest in doing so is one reason that Wu Cheng’en’s novel is still read today. But as a reward for having carried Xuanzang’s baggage all the way to India and back, Buddha – aware that Pigsy still has “a voracious appetite, a lazy body and a huge belly” – appoints him heavenly Altar Cleaner, whose job will be to hoover up all the offerings left at temple shrines.

A temple fair is held at Xizhuang on the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year.

Many thanks to Jim Kemp, without whom I wouldn’t have even known this temple existed; and Jim McClanahan for his excellent “Journey to the West Research” blog.