During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589
AC), once lived a famous painter named Zhang Seng-Zuong.
He was highly praised for his fine art by Emperor Liang
Wu.
One year, Zhang Seng-Zuong was asked to paint on the wall
of the temple of Andong. He almost finished the painting
of four dragons, in which they were breaking into a gallop
in clouds. Everybody appreciated the vivid dragons on
the wall. "But," asked one man," why didn't
you put in the pupils of their eyes?" "Well,
they will fly away if the pupils are put in." answered
Zhang Seng-Zuong. But nobody believed him. They took what
he said for jokes, so they still appealed to him to paint
the pupils in the eyes.
At their request, Zhang Seng-Zuong had to take up his
paintbrush to begin his troublesome work. After a moment
of hesitation, Zhang dotted the key part of the dragons
resolutely. Two of the dragons suddenly precipitated
into a cloud of rolls of thunder and lightning before
he could drop the paintbrush. The crowd was disordered
into a mess; some lay themselves on the stomach, and
some hid themselves behind pillars. A loud crash was
heard and the wall toppled into pieces in the middle.
The dragons writhed for a while and flew away high in
the sky. Fortunately the two without pupils still remained
there on the wall peacefully.
The proverb, 'Bring the painted dragons to life, by
putting pupils in their eyes' now is usually adopted
to indicate the case that a person can make his speech
or composition smartly lively just with only a few pointed
key words or expressions.
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