画龙点睛

画龙点睛

张僧繇(yóu )，梁武帝（萧衍）时期的名画家，擅写真、顼道人物，亦善画龙 、鹰、花卉、山水等。擅作人物故事画及宗教画，时人称为超越前人的画家。
梁武帝好佛，凡装饰佛寺，多命他画壁。所绘佛像，自成样式，被称为“张家样”，为雕塑者所楷模。张僧繇他的画活灵活现，画的东西跟真的一模一样。
甚至有人说他画的动物真的能活起来。有一次，他到一个地方去游览，他兴趣来了，就在金陵安乐寺庙的墙壁上面画了四条龙，可是没有画眼睛。有人就问他：“你为什么不画龙的眼睛呢？”。他回答说：“眼睛是龙的精髓，只要画上眼睛，龙就会飞走的。”大家哈哈大笑起来，认为他是个疯子。没想到他提起画笔，运足了气力，刚给两条龙点上眼睛，立刻乌云滚滚而来，突然电闪雷鸣，两条蛟龙腾空而起，人们惊得目瞪口呆，全都傻了眼了。

于是后来“画龙点睛”这个成语用来比喻讲话或写文章画画时，一两句关键的话（画）会使它们立刻生动起来。

Putting the finishing touch to the picture of a dragon

In the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period (nán běi cháo 南北朝,420-589AD), there was a painter called Zhang Sengyou (zhāng sēng yóu 张僧繇). Once he visited a temple and painted on the wall four dragons, but gave none of them eyes. The onlookers felt that this was odd, and asked why he had not painted the eyes. He answered, ‘Eyes are crucial for dragons. With the eyes painted on , the dragons would fly away.’ Nobody believed this, so Zhang Zengyou took up his brush and added eyes to two of the dragons. No sooner had he finished than the two dragons flew into the sky amid a thunderstorm. The two without eyes stayed painted on the wall.

This idiom is used to describe how, when writing or speaking, one or two key sentences will enhance the contents.