Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire, <br />How could Xi Shi remain humbly at home? -- <br />Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake -- <br />And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north: <br />Lowly one day, no different from the others, <br />The next day exalted, everyone praising her. <br />No more would her own hands powder her face <br />Or arrange on her shoulders a silken robe. <br />And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked, <br />Blinding him away from wisdom. <br />...Girls who had once washed silk beside her <br />Were kept at a distance from her chariot. <br />And none of the girls in her neighbours' houses <br />By pursing their brows could copy her beauty.<br /><br />Wang Wei<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-beautiful-xi-shi/
