During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589) there was a famous painter named Zhang Sengyao. He was very good at painting. His paintings were vivid and true to life.
One year, Zhang painted four dragons on the wall in the Le’an Temple in Jinling (present-day Nanjing City). All of them were absolutely lifelike, attracting many sightseers.
All of a sudden, someone noticed a defect in them, saying, “Look, these dragons have no eyes.”
The other people now looked at them more carefully and indeed saw that eyes had not been painted on them.
Then they found Zhang Sengyao and said, “You have not finished your paintings and why do the dragons have no eyes?”
“I cannot do that. If I draw the eyes, the dragons will fly off the wall,” Zhang replied.
They laughed and felt that he talked nonsense. Some one said, “You are just talking big. How can painted dragons fly away? Draw eyes on them and let us see whether they can fly away.”
The onlookers insisted that he add eyes to the dragons. Urged on by the crowd, Zhang added eyes to two of the dragons.
As soon as he finished, the sky became overcast and there was thunder and lightning. Accompanied by the thunder and lightning, the two dragons started to move and soon flew up into the sky. The people were too scared to ask him to add eyes to the remaining two dragons. Therefore, only two dragons are still to be seen on the wall of the Le’an Temple.
This story is excerpted from Famous Paintingin the Past Dynasties. Now it means that when people make a speech or write an essay, adding several words or characters in the key part will enhance the whole.
