Six Eared Macaque

The Six Eared Macaque, also known as the fake Sun Wukong, is an antagonist in the classic novel Journey to the West and its multiple adaptations. As his name suggested, he is a macaque with six ears that is as powerful as Sun Wukong himself.

Past
According to the Buddha, like Sun Wukong, the Six Eared Macaque is a magical monkey, who has supernatural abilities. His six ears allow him to listen everything, makes him omniscient.

Role in the story
The Six Eared Macaque first appears disguised as Sun Wukong, not long after Xuanzang sent the real Wukong away, offers Xuanzang a bowl of rice. Xuanzang angrily refuses, caused him to beat the monk unconscious.

Later on, Sha Wujing met him in the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, believing him to be Wukong. The macaque told Sha Wujing that his desire is to go to the West himself and receive all the scriptures and the Buddhahood all for himself. This angered Sha Wujing, who met the real Sun Wukong, and rant at him. The two head back to the mountain, where Wukong met the macaque, and the two battled. Despite all of the deities' best effort, only one could tell them apart, but said that only the Buddha can capture the imposter.

The two then fight in front of the Buddha, who used his magical bowl to capture the macaque, forced him to revert back to his true form. In anger, Sun Wukong killed the macaque.

Powers and Abilities
The Six Eared Macaque is a very good actor, can impersonate Sun Wukong not only in appearance, but personality as well. He can even able to fake the weapons, make them possess similar powers like Wukong's. He is also omniscients, due to his six ears that allow him to hear everything. Only the Buddha and one single deity can tell the difference between him and the real Sun Wukong.

Trivia

 * There exists a dark fan theory speculated that the one that got killed is the real Sun Wukong, and the Wukong seen for the rest of the story is the Six Eared Macaque himself. However, this theory is debunked by the fact that the Sun Wukong that got killed ran away from the Buddha, something that the real Sun Wukong would never do. Also, the novel had specified that the one that got killed revealed his true form as the Six Eared Macaque (while the 1986 version had done this, it doesn't look properly), further prove this theory is wrong.
 * He is one of the most popular Journey to the West villains, alongside the Red Boy, the Bull King, Princess Iron Fan, and the Baigujing.
 * He represents Wukong's dark side, so by killing him, it symbolized that Wukong had purged himself out of his evil side.