Puti Zushi

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Puti Zushi (simplified Chinese: 菩提祖师; traditional Chinese: 菩提祖師; pinyin: Pútí Zǔshī; Wade–Giles: P‘u²-t'i² Tsu³-shih¹; Jyutping: Pou⁴ tai⁴ Zou²si¹), also known as Master Bodhi, Patriarch Bodhi or Patriarch Subodhi (simplified Chinese: 须菩提祖师; traditional Chinese: 須菩提祖師; pinyin: Xūpútí Zǔshī), is a character from the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The character is believed to be derived from Subhūti, one of the ten principal disciples of the Buddha.^[1][2]

Puti was a mentor of the protagonist, the Monkey King (known as Sun Wukong in Chinese), endowing him with supernatural powers through Taoist practices. These include the "seventy-two earthly transformations"^[3] (shape-shifting abilities), immortality, and cloud-somersaulting, the ability to traverse 108,000 li (used as a synonym for "indefinitely large number", although literally a distance of ~54,000 km) in one somersault.^[4]

Sun Wukong's first meeting with Master Puti is believed to be based on the story of Huineng's Introduction to Hongren, as told in the Platform Sūtra of Zen Buddhism. Because of the role that Subhūti plays in the story, his name has remained familiar in Chinese culture.^[5] He is described as proficient in both Taoist and Buddhists practices.