The Qiyan lu is a collection of jokes or humorous stories attributed to the legendary Sui-dynasty humorist Hou Bai, but more likely compiled by multiple authors in the mid-to-late seventh century. The text was lost during or after the Song dynasty and was known only from fragments preserved in the tale anthology Taiping guangji (Wide-ranging Records from the Taiping Xingguo Era, 978) until the early twentieth century, when a manuscript dating from 723 was found in the famous sealed library cave at Dunhuang.

The translation below is based on the Dunhuang manuscript version; the version found in the Taiping guangji has numerous textual deviations. Two of this story’s punchlines are based on a pun: the label Hu is homophonous to the Chinese word for fox. Another punchline pokes fun at the deep-eyed and high-nosed facial features of the Hu monk, who was most likely of Sogdian descent.

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In the Sui dynasty, there was a Dharma Master (senior Buddhist monk) Sanzang (Tripitaka) whose father was originally a Hu merchant. The Master was born in the Central Lands of the Hua, but his facial features still had a Hu appearance. He had an excellent understanding of Buddhism and was also a skilled debater. Once, on the eighth day of the fourth month, he held a vegetarian feast and began to expound on the dharma. Several tens of thousands of court officials, monks, and lay Buddhists came to watch. More than ten eminent monks and officials, all known for their debating skills, debated with him one after another, and the Master tackled each one of their challenges, his arguments apparently inexhaustible. None could defeat him.

Finally, a little boy surnamed Zhao, who had just turned thirteen sui (twelve years old), stepped out from the audience. Everyone else in the audience, seeing that the Master’s eloquence was unbeatable even when pitted against famous debaters, laughed in astonishment upon seeing a mere child coming to debate him. The boy calmly took a seat and loudly questioned the monk: “In the past, there was a sutra about a wild jackal monk, but I don’t know what scriptural basis there is for a fox (hu) to be a teacher of Buddhism?”¹

The monk retorted, “This young master has a loud (literally “high”) voice but a small body. Why doesn’t he take his voice and use it to make himself taller?” The boy immediately responded, “Dharma Master, you say I have a loud voice but a small body and should use my voice to make myself taller. Well, you have deep eyes and a long nose. Why don’t you cut off part of your nose and use it to fill in your eyes?” The audience, amazed by his argument, rose to their feet and laughed.

Since it was summer, the Dharma Master had a ruyi scepter in his left hand and was fanning himself with a hand fan in his right. As the laughing had not died down, and he was contemplating how to respond, he held his fan in front of his face while lowering his head in thought. The boy again spoke up loudly: “This hand fan is round like the full moon, yet it hides not a rabbit but a male fox (hu)!”² The audience again broke out in loud laughter.

The Dharma Master lowered his fan and held up his ruyi scepter to begin a new line of argument, but before he could finish speaking, the scepter’s head fell off. The boy got on his feet and said to him, “Your scepter’s broken, and so is your line of argument!” He then put his hands together, bowed, and left. The monk was infuriated and embarrassed but could think of nothing to say. The whole audience cheered and laughed, marveling at the boy’s wit.

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1. The reference to the wild jackal monk alludes to the Adbhutadharmparyāya Sutra (Weicengyou yinyuan jing), in which the Buddha tells the tale of an enlightened wild jackal who preached a Buddhist sermon to the god Śakra (Dishitian). The Buddha then reveals that he was that jackal in a previous life. ↩︎
2. In Chinese lore, a rabbit or hare lives on the moon and uses a mortar and pestle to pound the ingredients for an elixir of immortality. ↩︎