When Su Dongpo saw Foyin for the first time, he only saw the image of a fat monk with a naive appearance. He did not have the transcendent temperament of an enlightened monk at all, so Su Dongpo revised the Foyin rumored by the outside world. It was so high that I felt dubious.

When talking with Foyin, Su Dongpo talked about everything from the emperor to the officials, from running the country to organizing the family. Foyin just listened quietly and never said a word. Foyin's silence made Su Dongpo look down upon him more and more. Su Dongpo regarded Foyin as a monk who had lived in vain.

Later, the topic of their conversation shifted to Buddhism. Foyin asked Su Dongpo what kind of person he was to Su Dongpo. Su Dongpo had always been outspoken and did not bother to say flattering words, so he confessed to Foyin. , bluntly stated that Foyin was a liar with no real ability in front of Su Dongpo.

After hearing Su Dongpo’s evaluation, Foyin just smiled without making any reply. Seeing that Foyin did not refute, Su Dongpo thought that he had acquiesced in his own opinion, so he asked Foyin somewhat proudly what kind of person Su Dongpo was in Foyin's eyes. Foyin spoke highly of Su Dongpo. He called Su Dongpo a bachelor and believed that Su was a very knowledgeable and cultivated person. Foyin was ashamed of himself.

Extended information:

Historical background

In the fourth year of Yuanyou (1089), Su Shi was appointed bachelor of Longtuge and knew Hangzhou. Since the West Lake has not been dredged for a long time, more than half of it has been silted up. "The flat lake in Kuotai has been overgrown for a long time, and the people are still withered after a good year." The lake gradually dried up and the lake was covered with weeds, which seriously affected agricultural production.

The second year after he came to Hangzhou, Su Shi led a crowd to dredge the West Lake, mobilized more than 200,000 migrant workers, fired Fengtian, restored the old view, and built three pagodas (today's Three Ponds Reflecting the Moon) in the deepest part of the lake as a symbol. He gathered the excavated silt and built a long embankment across the West Lake. The embankment was connected by six bridges for pedestrians. Later generations named it "Sugong Embankment", or "Su Embankment" for short.

“Su embankments are built everywhere on the east slope.” Su Shi built three long embankments in his life. When Su Shi was demoted to Yingzhou (now Fuyang, Anhui), Yingzhou West Lake was also dredged and embankments built.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Su Shi