Sun Wukong 孫悟空, Zhu Bajie 猪八戒 and Sha Wujing 沙悟浄 were disciples of Sanzang Fashi 三蔵法師 in the Ming dynasty novel The Journey to the West 西遊記. Many mysteries remain regarding their roots. This article points out that some of the real disciples of Xuanzang 玄奘 (602–664) were their models.
The model of Sun Wukong can be found in the Gaochang 高昌 native Ma Xuenchi 馬玄智 who delivered Xuanzang’s letter from Khotan 于闐 to Emperor Taizong 太宗 of Chang’an 長安, and in the exotic-looking attendant in Xuanzang’s portrait. The two may be the same person. He became a “monkey practitioner” 猴行者 in the Song dynasty novel The Narrative Story of Acquisition of Sūtras by Sanzang of the Great Tang Dynasty 大唐三蔵取経詩話 and a monkey-faced attendant in the painting of Acquisition of Sūtras by the Tang Monk 唐僧取経図 found in the Anxi Yulin Grottoes 安西楡林窟 during the same period.
The model of Zhu Bajie is considered to be Xuanzang’s disciple Kuiji 窺基 (632–682). According to the Song Biographies of Eminent Monks 宋高僧伝, he traveled with women and food in carriages and was called the “Three Carriages Monk” 三車和尚. Given his image of greed and amorousness, he was fused with a boar (or pig) pulling the chariot of Marīcī 摩利支天 in The Journey to the West of the Yuan Dynasty 元本西遊記. In The Journey to the West, critical Edition by Yang Donglai 楊東来先生批評西遊記 of the Ming dynasty, he calls himself “General Carriage” 御車将軍, a subordinate of Marīcī.
The model for Sha Wujing is the Great God 大神 dreamed by Xuanzang, when he was in distress in the desert. He was called “Shensha God” 深沙神 in the Song Dynasty novel The Narrative Story of Acquisition of Sūtras by Sanzang of the Great Tang Dynasty, but in The Journey to the West of the Yuan Dynasty he came to be known as “Sha Monk” 沙和尚. His level of divinity was demoted from god to monk because of the appearance of Zhu Bajie, which was modeled after Kuiji, and the image of Wŏnch’uk 円測 (613–696), a rival of Kuiji was superimposed.
