Wuzhiqi (Chinese:無支祁)[a] is a supernatural being inChinese mythology popularly depicted as a monkey-like aquatic demon and first described in the early 9th century.
The earliest description of Wuzhiqi can be found in the early 9th century collection of stories from theTang dynasty,Guoshi bu (國史補) byLi Zhao, which briefly tells of a fisherman in Chuzhou (楚州) who encounters a monkey demon with a black body and a white head in theHuai River.[2] Wuzhiqi is also described in theSong dynasty anthologyTaiping guangji as a "monkey-like demon" residing in the Huai River; it is defeated byYu the Great and imprisoned under Turtle Mountain (龜山) as part of his effort to control theGreat Flood.[3] Wuzhiqi sometimes appears in the form of a woman, and has different names such asGuishan Shuimu and Sizhou Virgin.
A cast-iron statue depicting Wuzhiqi was gifted to the German artist Hanna Bekker vom Rath and later housed at theMuseum of Asian Art inBerlin. Described as the "most intriguing and puzzling gift" to the museum, it was only identified in 2001 byUniversity of Hawaii professor Poul Andersen.[4] Andersen also documented the emergence of Wuzhiqi-inspired cults in northernAnhui.[5]
A popular argument first forwarded by Huang Zhigang offers that theJourney to the West protagonistSun Wukong was modeled after Wuzhiqi.[5]Anthony C. Yu writes in his unabridged translation ofThe Journey to the West that Wuzhiqi "has provided many scholars with a prototype of Sun Wukong" and that the author ofJourney himself had "certainly" read of Wuzhiqi – in Chapter 66, it is referred to as the "Water Ape Great Sage" (水猿大聖) – but that Wuzhiqi and Sun Wukong are "kept quite distinct" in the novel.[6]