Marshal Tianpeng (天蓬元帥, Tianpeng Yuanshuai)? is a Taoist deity, the personification of one of the stars of the Big Dipper asterism; some accounts equate the star Tianpeng with Benetnasch. He is one of the celestial marshals who serves under the Ziwei Emperor (紫微大帝*)?, who administrates all astronomical bodies. He is depicted with three heads and six arms, donning gold armor. When Marici was introduced to China via Buddhism around the Tang dynasty, Taoism conflated her with Doumu (斗母*)?, Tianpeng became one of her two protector generals. Starting from the Song dynasty, Tianpeng was revered as a thunder god and the chant of Tianpeng became popular for fending off evil spirits. Tianpeng might be based on a historical warrior named Bian Zhuang (卞莊) from the Spring and Autumn period of China, famous for his contrasting courage on the battlefield to his seemingly cunning tactic in hunting two tigers when they were heavily injured in a fight (卞莊刺虎,一舉兩得).
In the Chinese epic Journey to the West from the Ming dynasty, Marshal Tianpeng is the former life of Zhu Bajie (豬八戒*)? before his fall from grace, one of the partners of Sun Wukong. Tianpeng is banished to the earth by the Jade Emperor for molesting a nymph and reincarnated as an ugly and lazy man with a pig head. Zhu Bajie fights Wukong in the earlier parts of the book, but gives up when finds out that Wukong is a disciple of Tang Sanzang and joins their journey. Because of the tremendous popularity of the epic, Taoist Tianpeng is widely conflated with the fictional Zhu Bajie in modern day.