| Chinese Fable Stories | |
Bring the Painted Dragons to Life
by Putting Pupils in Their Eyes
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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