神马都是浮云shén mǎ dōu shì fú yún

Nothing matters (it’s all floating clouds)

shén mǎ dōu shì fú yún.神马都是浮云。It’s all floating clouds.

神马都是浮云 means “everything is floating clouds”: none of it matters, so don’t worry about it. 神马, “divine horse”, stands in for 什么, “what” or “everything”.

Took off: 2010
Started in: A forum post
Today: A classic

What it means

The normal sentence is 什么都是浮云. 神马 sounds almost the same as 什么, and the spelling came from typing: with a pinyin input method, a fast typist who meant 什么 could get 神马 instead. People kept the mistake as a joke.

浮云, “floating clouds”, is an old image for things that do not last or do not matter. The Analects of Confucius uses it for wealth gained the wrong way. Online, the clouds can be money, fame, a bad grade or an ex.

How people use it

The phrase now sounds like 2010, but people still use it to shrug something off: a lost game, a high price, a breakup. Sometimes it is cut to just 浮云.

灯灯

我玩游戏连输了十把
wǒ wán yóu xì lián shū le shí bǎ
I lost ten games in a row.
神马都是浮云，出来吃饭吧
shén mǎ dōu shì fú yún, chū lai chī fàn ba
It’s all floating clouds. Come out and eat.
好，你请客？
hǎo, nǐ qǐng kè?
OK. Your treat?
钱也是浮云……一人一半吧
qián yě shì fú yún…… yì rén yí bàn ba
Money’s floating clouds too… let’s split it.

More examples

考试没考好？没关系，神马都是浮云。
kǎo shì méi kǎo hǎo? méi guān xi, shén mǎ dōu shì fú yún.
The exam went badly? Don’t worry, it’s all floating clouds.
钱啊名啊，神马都是浮云，开心最重要。
qián a míng a, shén mǎ dōu shì fú yún, kāi xīn zuì zhòng yào.
Money, fame, none of it matters. Being happy is what counts.

Where it came from

The phrase spread during the National Day holiday in October 2010, after a long forum post about a very strange friend went viral. The replies and copies of that post joined 神马 and 浮云 into one line.

By November it was on the year-end lists of 2010’s top internet phrases, next to 给力. China Digital Times reposted one of those lists.

The original. There is no image: the phrase came from a text post and the replies to it. China Digital Times reposted a 2010 list that explains it. China Digital Times, November 2010 (in Chinese)