The Greatest Fart Joke in Chinese History

Today, we are looking at Chinese Literature’s greatest Fart Joke. This involves Su Dongpo, one of China’s greatest poets, and a monk who punctures Su Dongpo’s self importance.

Here are some of the things I mentioned I would put on the podcast.

Su Dongpo’s Poem on the 8 Winds:

I bow my head to the heaven of heavens

That tiny ray of light that is Buddhism shines on the vast universe 

the eight winds cannot move me

I sit up straight like the purple golden lotus

稽首天中天
毫光照大千
八风吹不动
端坐紫金莲。

Here are some of the Buddhist, Chinese-language sources for this story:

https://books.masterhsingyun.org/ArticleDetail/artcle10512

https://www.lifeweek.com.cn/article/70294

Here is an AI generated transcript of the podcast:

 My name is Lee Moore and this is the Chinese Literature Podcast. The last two episodes, I’ve had some amazing guests. Today I wanted to get back to the old fashioned way of doing a podcast. That is just me talking about something from, from Chinese literature. Hopefully I’ll have some more guests coming up pretty soon, but we’re gonna go back to the old ways today.

In today’s podcast, we’re gonna look at something from the Song Dynasty, something that I don’t think you ever expected to hear. We’re going to examine the greatest fart joke in all of Chinese literature. This is a fart joke between UR and a Buddhist monk named Buddha’s Stamp. But before we get to all that really quick update on my book, China’s backstory.

I know some of y’all have been asking about it. I’ve been working really hard, as I mentioned, at the year end episode of 2024, I turned in drafts of the book to my editor and I thought, wow, that that was a lot of work. Now I’m off the hook. I can go skiing a bunch. Nope. Turns out there’s still a lot more work to do.

No surprises, really. I’ve been editing those drafts again and again. In fact, for the last three or four weeks, I just spent. Every weekday reading and rereading and rereading those drafts, I’m getting some comments from, from some friends. I turned it over to my editors. This is coming out on the last Friday night, Saturday morning of March.

About a week before that I turned in something kind of close to a finalized draft, or it’s the final draft before my editors actually sit down and, and hack that draft to pieces. So they’re right now hopefully looking over. The book and going through it with a fine tooth comb. We’re looking at a publication date in late September or early October.

By the way, if you’re interested in signing up to get news of the book, you can navigate over to chinese literature podcast.com. There’s a button right there on that page. You can pre-order my book. You don’t actually. Pre-order it, you’re, you’re really just giving my editors your email address. One thing people have been asking if you’re interested in doing more for the book, contributing a little bit more to it.

My editors at Unsung Voices books actually ask me to find people who are willing to read and advanced reader copy. That’s an a RC. So at some point, probably in the summer of 2025. If you agreed to do this, what we would do is we would send you a version that my editors have looked over. It’s not quite, quite the final version, but it’s pretty dang close.

So we would send you a digital copy of that. The book would be in an almost perfect state that the point of the. This is all that you read the book and then you give us a blurb that Unsung Voices books can use on its social media promotion campaign. Again, hopefully you put it out on your social media feed so that other people see that.

If you’re interested in getting an advanced reader copy and doing that, reading the book and providing your comments on the book, send me an email at Chinese Literature podcast@gmail.com. Okay, that’s enough of my own personal marketing farting. Now let’s get down to the main business of this podcast.

Bart Jokes. Today we are going to look at the greatest fart joke in all of Chinese literature. One of the greatest poets in all of Chinese literature. He’s from the Song Dynasty. Just in case you have forgotten the song Dynasty goes roughly from nine 60 to 1279, and we could debate those dates. Ur himself lived right in the.

Sort of middle of that 10 73 to 1101 SPO was a poet. We’ve talked about him before on the podcast in the summer of 2021. Way back when Rob and me were doing the podcast together, we actually had a discussion of a couple of Spol poems, and in December, 2023, I actually did a podcast by myself on PS PO’s poetry trials.

He was actually put on trial in a sort of kangaroo. Court in the Song Dynasty for some highly political poems that he wrote. He did not get executed, but he was pretty much on trial for the the rest of his life. I should hasten to add that Suun Poi is not just a poet. He was also a powerful politician in the Song Dynasty, he’s a song Dynasty bureaucrat, a very high level song dynasty bureaucrat.

There are some economic debates that begin around 10 69. These economic debates are hugely important to China’s economic history. PU comes down on the side of the economic conservatives, and part of the reason that he was punished was just ’cause the partisanship. I. In the, this period of the song Dynasty is so brutal.

His punishment oftentimes, and, and this happened repeatedly, his punishment is that he was exiled to the south, the emperor sin deeper and deeper into the malaria wilds of China’s. South, and this actually kind of went back and forth. Dupo was sent down to the south and then brought back into power, and then sent down to the South again and again.

This happened many times. Another thing I should point out about Dupo. Dupo is not his given name. He’s. I think more frequently known as Ur. His last name is Sue, or excuse me, his, his surname is Sue. That’s his family name, but his given name was not ur. That’s a name that he chose for himself. Like most intellectuals in China, he had a bunch of different names depending on the situation he was in.

PO is kind of his rap name or his stage name. Just as Chris Bryan Bridges is not. Normally called Chris Brian Bridges, except for those who know him closely. His rap name is Ludicrous, so Su PO’s birth name was, but he chose his rap name of donor, which just means Eastern Slope. He chose that name. While he was in exile, he was situated on a farm called Eastern Slope, which you can guess which side of, uh, some mountain it was situated on.

So I’m gonna call him, but keep in mind you might see sources when you’re looking him up. Say Suha. Both are correct. Today’s text that is the fart joke occurred when Ur was working as a politician in the city of Gu Jo that’s on the North Bank of the Ysu River. It’s just south of modern day Yang. Joe Yang Joe is, by the way, where fried rice comes from that, that particular dish.

So if you, you enjoy fried rice, it’s a great place to go. I had some fried rice there. It was phenomenal. Obviously, Cuatros not much of a city today, but back in the day, it was a relatively large port on the Yanga River. While he was there as a politician, ginned up a friendship with a Buddhist in a temple in the city of Jinjiang.

Jinjiang is just across the Ysa River on the South Bank of the Yanga River. The monk’s name was Zen Master Foin. Ian, I don’t want to kind of get into the politics of naming, but the, the term we use in English that is Zen in China, that’s called Chan Buddhism. So the Japanese pronunciation of this exact same word, the, the exact same word, is zen, but in China, in, excuse me, in modern Mandarin, the pronunciation of that word is Chun.

And since most westerners call it zen, because it was transmitted to. Areas outside of Asia via Japan. Japan kind of got to name the English word for that. They’re pretty much the same thing. You know, obviously Japan is going to have its own take once it creates this thing called Zen Buddhism. But when you’re looking at the early Zen Buddhist Masters, if you go back in a time machine, 7, 8, 900 years, none of them would’ve said.

Oh, what we’re doing is different from what they’re doing in China. Japanese nationalists today may say that, but certainly Zen Masters of a thousand years ago would not have ever made that claim. But there is a kind of politics to this, but I’m gonna call it Zen just because I’m, I’m speaking to an English.

Forward audience. So Zen Master Foing, Zen Master Foing. That’s just Zen Master Buddhist stamp. It’s literally what his name means. Most Buddhists, when they became monks, chose new names that were derived from Buddhism. So Zen Master Buddhist stamp is not all that unusual. One thing you need to understand about Buddhism to get this part joke is that.

Zen Buddhism has a concept called the eight wins. These eight wins are things that can blow you off your course as you’re trying to be a good Buddhist and achieve enlightenment. Those eight things, the eight wins are praise, insults, defamation, honor, profits, loss, bitterness, and happiness. Not quite sure what the difference between insults and defamation are.

Honor and praise also. Pretty similar. I mean, they’re different words in Chinese when I was, when I was doing the research for this podcast, they’re, they’re clearly different words, but they kind of seem like the same thing to me. They, they’re. Synonyms, but there you are. There are eight wins. Those are the eight wins.

If you are influenced by these eight wins, you are blown off your course to being a good Buddhist. Remember, in Buddhism, the goal of the religion is to recognize that everything in this world is false. This is samsara. Everything is just this endless cycle of birth and death, rebirth. It’s all pain, and all of this is an illusion.

If you can, using spiritual techniques developed by Gaab Buddha, you can. Short circuit the cycle and achieve enlightenment. Stepping out of this cycle, that’s the goal. So Supo is over at Gua Jo. He’s studying Buddhism while he’s working as this official in that city. He’s hanging out talking with his friend on the other side of the River Zen Master Buddhist stamp.

SPO comes to believe as he does his Buddhist studies. He comes to believe that he’s made some real advances in terms of his personal moral development. He is. Thinks that he has conquered the temptations that one might get from those eight wins. And he writes this poem talking about how awesome he is, how much of a Buddhist bad mamma jama he is now that he’s kind of advanced in his study of Buddhism, he’s.

Come to believe that he’s a great Buddhist. Here’s the poem that he writes. I bow my head to the heaven of heavens. That tiny ray of light that is Buddhism’s shining on the vast universe, the eight winds cannot move me. I sit straight like the purple Golden Lotus. A couple of things to note about this poem that Spol writes.

He starts out, I wouldn’t say he’s humble, but. At least he’s not talking about himself in that first couplet, those first two lines, he starts out saying he bows his head. So there’s this kind of sign of submission to Buddhism, whatever that entails. The second line, he’s talking about how awesome Buddhism is.

He’s not talking about himself. In that second line, there’s this kind of sense that this tiny ray of light, just a single ray, a symbol of Buddhism itself, this tiny ray of light is able to shine. All over the vast universe. It’s not a humble start to the poem, but it, it’s, he’s not flattering himself in any way in this first couplet.

But then there’s this real shift in the second half of the poem, line three, all of that humility is gone. It’s out the window. Now, PSPU is talking about how awesome he is now that he’s such a great Buddhist. He says, those eight wins the temptations. That Buddhism warns its practitioners about praise, insults, defamation, honor, prophets, loss, bitterness, and happiness.

Those things don’t move him anymore. He’s just too great of a Buddhist to be moved by that. When reading this, you’re like, oh, wow. He’s. Super prideful and line four is even more prideful. He essentially compares himself to a purple Golden lotus, which is in Chinese Buddhism, a symbol of enlightenment without actually explicitly saying that.

He’s saying that he thinks he’s pretty close to enlightenment. He’s there standing straight, like the purple golden. Lotus Now he’s getting really proud. So, okay, pu is super proud of himself. He sends this poem off to his friend, Zen Master Buddhist stamp. He’s so proud of himself that he’s like, ah, let me write, let me send this poem across the river to, to my Zen master friend on the other side of the river.

He sends the poem across. The river. And pretty quickly his servant comes back and SPO goes, well, what did the Zen Master say? And his servant goes, he didn’t say anything. SPO goes, well, why’d you come back so fast? And the servant goes, well, ’cause he wrote something on the poem and goes. What did he write?

And the servant goes, I don’t know. UR says, Hey, let’s open it up. He opens it up and all over Su PO’s poem. The Zen Master wrote one word, fart. FG P. That’s it. Supo is super angry. He goes, why did my friend this zen master write fart on my poem? This is an insult. I’ve been nice to him before. And he goes and does this.

Supo doesn’t wait. He. Gets in a boat and Carrie goes across the Yang Zoo River. He marches into the temple and he says to his zen master friend, Hey, what’s up with writing fart on my great poem? And the Zen master replies with this famous line. You said the aid wins cannot move you. But with a single fart, I was able to get you all the way across.

The Yanga River, I was able to blow you all the way across the Yanga River.

Wham. In one sense, there is this great joke. Here’s talking about how great he is. How great of a Buddhist that he is. How the eight winds of Buddhism cannot move him. And the Zen master makes a joke about breaking wind and the joke in English translates pretty well into Chinese, that connection of wind to farts.

But there’s this larger philosophical and religious message gets de. Buddhism and he comes to think that he’s God’s gift to God. He writes this poem that’s very highly praising of himself when the Zen master. Write on on this vain, glorious poem, just the word fart. The master was trying to puncture that sense of pride and also simultaneously show dupo how little he had learned.

Remember, one of the eight wins is insults. Dupo proved that he was moved by one of those eight wins, even in this poem, about how he can’t be moved by those eight wins. I’m gonna start to wrap this podcast up. Hopefully this is not the last fart joke of the podcast ’cause this was actually pretty great.

One thing, one question that hung over this whole episode as I was doing the research for, did this really happen in history? I’m sure y’all are wondering that as well. My answer is. Maybe so when I was doing research for this podcast, most of the sources that I found on this particular event were from Buddhist text.

Now, I didn’t go diving into the archives, but I didn’t find anything from non-Buddhist sources. I. About PU and this far joke, I reached out to a professor of mine who’s an expert on PU and he didn’t respond, maybe because he didn’t take this seriously, or maybe there’s some other reason. Mm-hmm. I really do wonder how historical this is, ’cause it’s such a perfect Zen Buddhist parable and it makes me wonder was it true?

Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to know either way. It’s a great story and what I can tell you is that. Yeah, there are lots of Chinese language Buddhist sources that talk about it as if it’s true, but I have not been able to find any non Buddhist sources that talk about it. I’m gonna put some of those sources up on the podcast webpage, chinese literature podcast.com.

You can go there and find this episode and, and take a look. If you read Chinese, see what you think as. I often try and do, I’m going to end this podcast with a Chung Yu. There aren’t too many Chung Yu about farts, but I did find one.

This Chung Yu literally means dog farts make no sense, and it refers to something that’s utterly illogical or absurd.

So this article is nonsensical dog fart. It has no logic. That’s how that sentence would literally be translated. I’m gonna see if I can use that. Chung Yu this week watching the news. I can think of a lot of things to describe P

as usual. If you liked this podcast, if you thought it was completely f.

Whatever. If you were indifferent to this podcast, send me an email. I will get back to you. It takes me a while, particularly if you have the word fart in your subject line. It might take me a little bit longer to cross the yxi. My email is Chinese literature podcast@gmail.com. If you want to be an advanced reader of the book, send me an email.

Like I said, I’ll put links up in Chinese to the story. I’ll also post my translations of. The poem that wrote, so you can take a look at that on the website. Okay. That’s enough for me. I’m going to go, go, go do some farting. My name is Lee Moore and this is the Chinese Literature podcast. I.