Four Beauties

In one chapter, the women Mao Qiang and Lady Li are described as "great beauties" who "when fish see them they dart into the depths, when birds see them they soar into the skies, when deer see them they bolt away without looking back".

[2]: 19  This passage is the source of the well-known Chinese idiom "to make fish sink and birds fall", which refers to feminine beauty (see 沉魚落雁).

Similar to the story in the Zhuangzi, she was said to be so entrancingly beautiful that fishes would forget how to swim and sink below the surface upon seeing her reflection in the water.

Goujian, the King of Yue, had surrendered to the rival state of Wu, with the aim of biding his time before enacting his revenge.

[4] Locally renowned for her beauty and skill at playing the pipa, she was chosen to be admitted into the harem of Emperor Yun, despite her young age.

Set in the waning years of the Eastern Han and the subsequent Three Kingdoms period, she was said to be so luminously lovely that the moon itself would shy away in embarrassment when compared to her face.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Diaochan, a geji of Wang Yun, assists her master in his plot to bring down Dong Zhuo.

Particularly influential was the Tang poet Bai Juyi's long poem, "Chang hen ge" ("Song of Everlasting Sorrow").

The merged idiom is 沉魚落雁，閉月羞花 (sinks fish and entices birds to fall, eclipses the moon and shames flowers); the two parts can also be used separately.