When it comes to the most glorious and beautiful image of beauty in literature, I think it is not the "son of the owner" and the "daughter of the Qin family".
Song Yu described the "son of the owner" in "Deng Disciple's Lustful Endowment":
The son of the owner, adding one point is too long, subtracting one point is too short; pink is too white, Shi Zhu is too red; eyebrows are like green feathers, muscles are like white snow; waist is like a bundle, teeth are like shells; YanRan smiles, confused Yangcheng, and lost Cai.
Translated into modern words:
The beautiful woman on the east partition wall of my house is not tall or low, if you add a point, it is too high, and if you lose a point, it is too short; the skin color is naturally beautiful, it is too white to apply fat powder, and it is too red to smear lipstick; the eyebrows are like the feathers of a kingfisher, and the skin is like pure white snow; the thin waist is wrapped in satin gracefully, and the teeth are arranged neatly like a series of small shells; she smiles, which is enough to make the handsome teenagers of Yangcheng and Xia cai (the place where beautiful men are abundant in the Chu kingdom) fascinated.
Han Le Fu's "Mo Shang Sang" describes the beautiful woman Qin Luoshi as follows:
The Qin clan had a good daughter who called herself Luo Shi. Luo Shixi silkworm mulberry, the southern corner of the city of Caisang. The green silk is the cage system, and the laurel branch is the cage hook. The head is in a bun, and the moon pearl is in the ear. The skirt is the lower skirt and the purple skirt is the upper skirt. The walker saw the rashiki and put down his beard. The young man saw Luo Shi and took off his hat and wore a hat. The tiller forgets his plow, and the hoe forgets his hoe. Come back to each other to be angry, but sit and watch Luo Shi.
According to the current words: there is a beautiful girl in the Qin family named Luo Shi, who likes to pick mulberries. When she was dressed, she carried a small wool basket tied with green silk ears and held a small hook cage made of laurel branches. He wears a fallen ponytail on his head, earrings made of jewels on his ears, a light yellow patterned silk skirt on the lower body, and a purple Ayako short jacket on the upper body. When the pedestrians saw Luo Shi, they put down their burdens and looked at her with their beards. When the young man saw Luo Shi, he couldn't help but take off his hat and redress his turban. The people who ploughed the land forgot that they were plowing the land, and the people who hoeed the fields forgot that they were hoeing the fields; so that the farm work was not finished, and when they returned home, they complained to each other, and they all blamed Qin Luoshi for being too beautiful.
Song Yu uses the technique of positive depiction to create a beautiful and moving owner; "Mo Shang Sang" uses the technique of side foil to depict a pure and lovely mulberry girl. The two have different expression methods, but they have created literary images that have been recited through the ages.
We can't help but admire the master's brilliant brushwork and classic charm!
