画龙点睛 (Huà Lóng Diǎn Jīng )
Add eyeballs to the picture of a dragon to bring it to life — Put the finishing touches to something
Legend has it that during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 — 589), there was a famous painter named Zhang.
Zhang was good at painting people, animals, landscapes and the Buddha. His paintings were vivid and true to life. People said that the animals he drew could come out of the picture as soon as he gave them the finishing touches. To make sure, a large group of people gathered in a temple one day to see Zhang paint dragons.
Zhang painted four dragons on the wall. All of them were lifelike but didn’t have eyes. The watchers were puzzled and asked him why.
“If I draw the eyes, the dragons will fly off the wall.” Zhang replied.
“He’s just talking big!” some people thought.
Half believing and half doubting, the onlookers insisted that he add eyes to the dragons.
Urged on by the crowd, Zhang added eyeballs to two of the dragons.
In the twinkling of an eye, it turned dark and began raining hard. Accompanied by thunder and lightning, the two dragons started to move and soon flew into the sky. The two other dragons without eyes remained on the wall.
The story might not be true, ut the painter is real and he really was very skillful at painting. People made up that story to show their admiration for him. And from that story the idiom 画龙点睛 (Huà Lóng Diǎn Jīng) developed to describe the one or two illuminating phrases in a speech or article that make the whole piece more vivid and to the point. You can also use it in a broader sense. When you want to say “give the finishing touch” to something, you can say 画龙点睛 (Huà Lóng Diǎn Jīng) .
