The four beauties in ancient China are the stories of Shi, Wang Zhaojun and Diusim, enjoying the reputation of "sinking fish and falling geese, closing the moon and feeling ashamed of flowers". The ranking of the four beauties is: Shi first, Wang Zhaojun second, the story of Dixin third and fourth.
The legend of sinking fish
"When a fish sinks, a wild goose falls" is an idiom, which is usually attributed to The Theory of Everything in Zhuangzi: "Mao Cong and Li Ji are beautiful, the fish is deep, the bird is flying, and the elk is sudden. Who knows the true face of the world? "
It means animals can't feel the beauty of people. Some people think that the Song Dynasty sang the poem "Huan Sha Pian" in the Tang Dynasty: "The bird is surprised as a pineapple, and the fish is afraid of the lotus." It is the origin of this idiom, so I think that sinking fish represents beauty. Stone has the posture of "sinking fish". Shi is a woman who washes gauze. She has regular facial features, pink face and peach blossom, and looks extraordinary.
When she was washing gauze by the river, the clear river reflected her delicate figure and made her look more beautiful. According to legend, when the stone was washing gauze by the stream, the fish in the water thought the stone was too beautiful, so they all sank to the bottom in shame and dared not come out.
The legend of Yuhuan's shame on flowers
Legend has it that when Yang Yuhuan first entered the palace, he was sad all day because he couldn't see the king. Once, she and the ladies-in-waiting went to the palace to enjoy flowers, and accidentally met the mimosa, and the leaves of the grass immediately rolled up.
The ladies-in-waiting said that this was the beauty of Yang Yuhuan, which made the flowers and plants feel ashamed and ashamed. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty heard that there was a "beauty who was ashamed of flowers" in the palace, and immediately summoned her and made her the imperial concubine. Since then, "shame on flowers" has become Yang Guifei's nickname.