Macaque Spirit King is a character from the Journey to the West (西游记 xī yóu jì), one of the Seven Great Sages (七大圣 qī dà shèng).
When the Monkey King (孙悟空 sūn wù kōng) visited the heroes on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit (花果山 huā guǒ shān), he met six demon kings, including the Macaque Spirit King. The seven became sworn brothers and named their group the Seven Great Sages (七大圣 qī dà shèng). Later the Monkey King, as the leader of the group, gave himself the title "Great Sage, Heaven's Equal" (齐天大圣 aí tiān dà shèng). The Macaque Spirit King then went on to name himself the Tong Feng Great Sage1 (通风大圣 tōng fēng dà shèng).
1 The meaning behind the title Tong Feng Great Sage is not clear, but there are two main schools of thought on what it is meant to represent:
1. Tong 通 is short for 通晓 (tōng xiǎo) which means to thoroughly understand; have a good knowledge of. And Feng 风 means wind, meaning, to come and go like the wind - fast and free. This description fits as the Macaque Spirit King is extremely smart and agile, said to come and go like a shadow.
2. Feng 凤 means wind, which, in accordance with Chinese folklore, can travel everywhere and anywhere and 'carries' with it knowledge and information from all corners of the earth. In this sense Tong Feng 通风 means "all-knowing" or "aware of evertyhing".
The other six sages include: