八風吹不動 in Chinese / Japanese...

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Unmoved by the Eight Winds

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bā fēng chuī bù dòng

happuu sui fudou

八風吹不動 is an ancient Buddhist phrase from about 1000 years ago.

Literal meaning: “The Eight Winds cannot move [me].”

The original famous anecdote is from Song Dynasty China, involving the poet-official 蘇東坡 (Su Dongpo / Su Shi, 1037–1101) and Zen master 佛印 (Foyin).

Su Dongpo wrote 八風吹不動，一屁打過江
“The Eight Winds cannot move me; Yet one fart blows me across the river.”

Foyin’s irreverent reply exposed Su Dongpo’s ego, which is kind of a classic Zen/Chan teaching story.

For more understanding, the Eight Winds of Buddhism are usually defined as:

利 gain
衰 loss
毀 disgrace
譽 praise
稱 honor
譏 ridicule
苦 suffering
樂 pleasure

There are other ways to translate or interpret:

“The Eight Winds cannot move [him / the mind].”
“Unmoved by the Eight Winds.”
“The Eight Winds do not move me.”
“Not moved by the Eight Winds.”
“Unshaken by the Eight Winds.”
“Unaffected by the Eight Winds.”
“Unmoved by worldly forces.”
“Steadfast against the Eight Winds.”
“Remaining unmoved amid the Eight Winds.”

There is a shorter Japanese Zen version, 八風不動, which drops the middle character. Often romanized as happū fudō. The romanization of 八風吹不動 is arguably happū fukedomo ugokazu or happū sui fudō.

The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title	Characters	Romaji (Romanized Japanese)	Various forms of Romanized Chinese
Unmoved by the Eight Winds	八風吹不動八风吹不动	happuu sui fudou happuusuifudou hapu sui fudo	bā fēng chuī bù dòng ba1 feng1 chui1 bu4 dong4 ba feng chui bu dong bafengchuibudong	pa feng ch`ui pu tung pafengchuiputung pa feng chui pu tung
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese.