"If you want to compare the West Lake to the West Lake, it's always appropriate to put on heavy makeup and light makeup" means that if you compare the West Lake to beauty Xi Shi, she always looks so beautiful regardless of light makeup and heavy makeup. This poem comes from Su Shi, a litterateur of the Song Dynasty, who composed a group poem "After Drinking Chu Qing on the Lake". There are two poems in one poem, and this poem is the second one.
The whole poem is:
The water is bright and sunny, and the mountains are empty and rainy. (Meng Tong: Meng)
If you want to compare the West Lake with the West Lake, it is always appropriate to put on light makeup and heavy makeup.
Under the bright sunshine, the water in the West Lake is microwave-sparkling, sparkling and beautiful. On rainy days, under the cover of rain curtain, the mountains around the West Lake are misty, and if there is anything, it is also very wonderful. If the West Lake is compared to beauty Xi Shi, she always looks so beautiful, no matter what makeup she wears.
Extended information:
Su Shi was the general judge of Hangzhou from four to seven years (171-174) in Xining, Song Shenzong, and wrote a lot of poems about the scenery of the West Lake. This group of poems was written in the sixth year of Xining (173) in the middle of February. The author swims around the West Lake, enjoying the beautiful lakes and mountains from morning till night, drinking and thinking, and enjoying Wan Ren. So I wrote this masterpiece that was told for a while.
The poet enjoyed drinking in the West Lake. At the beginning, the sun was bright and beautiful, and the West Lake was rippling and sparkling, and the scenery was just right. When it rains, the green hills around the West Lake are misty and boundless, and if there is nothing, it shows another wonderful scenery. "billowing", the waves are flashing. "Empty", misty rain confused. These two words are both rhyming words, which enhance the musicality of poetic language.
In the second half of the poem, the poet did not closely follow the first two sentences, and further used his pen to describe the sunny and rainy colors of lakes and mountains. Instead, he inherited the appearance and took the spirit, and only used an ethereal and appropriate metaphor to convey the charm of lakes and mountains. Metaphoring the West Lake with stunning beauty not only gives life to the beauty of the West Lake, but also is novel and unique, with meaningful feelings.
This excellent metaphor was called by the Song people as a good sentence of "Tao gives full play to the benefits of the West Lake", so that "Xizi Lake" became another name for the West Lake.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Two Poems of Rain after Drinking Chu Qing on the Lake.