西施
Xi Shi, the first of the Four Beauties
Name: ________________ Date: ________
中国人形容一个女人特别美，有时会说她“沉鱼落雁”。这四个字里的“沉鱼”，说的就是两千多年前的一个姑娘：西施。她是中国古代有名的“四大美女”之一。
西施生活在春秋时期的越国，家在今天的浙江。她家里很穷，每天都要到村子旁边的小河里洗衣服。传说有一天，她正在河边洗衣服，水里的鱼看见她映在水中的样子，居然忘了游泳，一条一条地沉到了水底。“沉鱼”这个说法就是这么来的。
据说西施有心口疼的毛病。疼起来的时候，她会用手按着胸口，轻轻皱起眉头。没想到，她皱眉的模样比平时还要迷人，村里的人看到了，忍不住称赞她。
村子东边住着一个姑娘，叫东施，长得不太好看。她看见大家都称赞西施皱眉好看，就悄悄学了起来。从此以后，她每天走在路上，都用手按着胸口，用力皱着眉头。后来呢？村里的人一看见她，就赶紧关上大门，躲在家里不出来。这就是成语“东施效颦”，意思是不看自己的条件，只会模仿别人，结果反而更糟糕。这个故事最早记载在《庄子》里。
不过，西施出名，并不只是因为长得美。当时，越国被旁边的吴国打败了，越国的国王勾践一直想报仇。他和大臣范蠡想出了一个办法：把美女送给吴王夫差，让他整天只想着玩，不再管国家大事。西施就这样被送到了吴国。
吴王果然非常喜欢西施，整天和她在一起，国家的事也越来越不放在心上。他甚至杀了一位一直劝他小心越国的老大臣。又过了很多年，越国终于打败了吴国，夫差也死了。
西施后来去了哪里？历史上没有明确的记载。有一种说法是，她和范蠡一起坐上一条小船，在太湖上过起了自由的生活。也有人说，她被沉到了江里。
你更愿意相信哪一个结局呢？
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 美 | měi | beautiful; pretty |
| 姑娘 | gūniang | girl; young woman |
| 样子 | yàngzi | appearance; look |
| 说法 | shuōfǎ | version; account; view |
| 按 | àn | to press; to push down |
| 条件 | tiáojiàn | condition; term; requirement |
| 结果 | jiéguǒ | as a result; in the end; result; outcome |
| 当时 | dāngshí | then; at that time |
| 死 | sǐ | to die; dead |
| 形容 | xíngróng | to describe |
| 古代 | gǔdài | ancient times; antiquity |
| 穷 | qióng | poor; impoverished |
English (for the teacher)
When Chinese people want to say a woman is stunningly beautiful, they sometimes say she makes “fish sink and geese fall”. The “sinking fish” in those four characters is about a girl who lived more than two thousand years ago: Xi Shi. She is one of the famous “Four Beauties” of ancient China.
Xi Shi lived in the state of Yue in the Spring and Autumn period, in what is now Zhejiang. Her family was poor, and every day she went to wash clothes in the stream beside her village. Legend says that one day, as she was washing by the stream, the fish saw her reflection in the water, forgot how to swim, and one by one sank to the bottom. That is where the phrase “sinking fish” comes from.
It is said that Xi Shi suffered from pains in her chest. When the pain came, she would press a hand to her chest and knit her brows a little. Unexpectedly, she looked even more enchanting frowning than usual, and the villagers who saw it couldn’t help praising her.
On the east side of the village lived a girl called Dong Shi, who was not very good-looking. Seeing everyone praise Xi Shi’s frown, she quietly began to copy it. From then on, whenever she walked down the road, she pressed a hand to her chest and frowned as hard as she could. And then? As soon as the villagers saw her, they hurried to shut their gates and hid indoors. That is the idiom “Dong Shi imitates the frown”: copying others without considering your own situation, and only making things worse. The story first appears in the Zhuangzi.
But Xi Shi isn’t famous only for her looks. At the time, Yue had been defeated by its neighbour Wu, and Goujian, the king of Yue, longed for revenge. He and his minister Fan Li came up with a plan: give beautiful women to Fuchai, the king of Wu, so he would think only of pleasure and stop running his country. And so Xi Shi was sent to Wu.
Sure enough, the king of Wu adored her and spent all his days with her, caring less and less about affairs of state. He even had an old minister killed who had kept warning him to beware of Yue. Many years later, Yue finally defeated Wu, and Fuchai died too.
Where did Xi Shi go after that? History doesn’t say for certain. One version says she sailed away with Fan Li in a little boat and lived freely on Lake Tai. Others say she was drowned in a river.
Which ending would you rather believe?