This is not a joke. Apparently, this is taught here. At least, according to the China Daily.

In reviewing an upcoming television series based on the life of “witty ancient Chinese courtier” Dongfang Shuo, today’s China Daily writes, “Some historic books say he was the first Chinese to travel to the North Pole.”

That would make the “witty courtier” also the first human to get to the North Pole, considering he lived 2,000 years ago during the Western Han dynasty, according to the China Daily.

In the West, the first people to reach the North Pole usually are considered to be American Robert Peary, and his party, in 1909. Though some doubt he actually reached the Pole, and suggest the first to set foot there were seven Soviets, in 1948 or perhaps three Americans in 1952. The last two parties arrived via plane; Peary did (or didn’t do it) overland.

At any rate, whoever got there only in the last century apparently were two millennia behind that bemused courtier from China, Dongfang Shuo. According to some Chinese “historic books.”

Perhaps those late-comers might have found evidence of the merry prankster from China, had they looked around the Pole a bit. Perhaps a book of jokes.