晉朝的著名畫家顧愷之，
學問深、繪畫好談吐尤風趣。
時人送個外號稱“三絕”，
說他是“才絕”“畫絕”“性絕癡”。
南北朝梁代有個張僧繇（yáo），
他的畫藝很高名氣大，
他擅長畫山水人物和佛像，
不知者往往認畫作真物。
武帝時興建的許多寺院和佛塔，
裏頭有許多佛像是他親手畫。
傳說他曾在廟壁畫了四條龍，
每條龍都不把眼睛畫。
朋友們勸他把龍眼給點上，
龍無眼睛不傳神太可惜。
大家再三懇求下，
僧繇難拂眾人意，
提起畫筆點兩點，
兩聲響，點睛的兩龍破壁騰空向天去。
未點睛的兩條還在牆上趴，
眾人嚇得四散去。
這故事雖然離奇又荒誕，
但卻能說明一個道理：
僧繇所以威望高，
因他作畫有好功底。
唐代也有個畫家叫吳道子，
畫山水畫佛像有造詣，
筆法絕妙人稱讚，
無人能和道子比。
傳說他為玄宗畫了幅嘉陵山水畫，
一天內畫完了山水三百裏。
他還在景玄寺畫了幅《地獄變相圖》，
沒鬼怪那陰森的氣氛卻也把人逼。
甚至於有人看了這幅畫，
發誓永不幹壞事。
三位畫家成曆史，
後人讚譽常提起。
顧愷之畫技超前人，
張僧繇畫技無人及，
吳道子成就以前不曾有，
往後也難有人超過吳道子。
後人提起畫壇事，
得出了“空前絕後”這成語，
常形容某種藝術成就高，
或者是某件事物極稀奇。
獨一無二最罕見，
絕非其他能相比。
A Thing Never Existed in the Past，
and Will Never Happen in the Future
In the Jin Dynasty（265—420A。D。），there was a famous artist named Gu Kaizhi，who was learned and eloquent and humourous。The people called him“a man of three talents”，saying he was brilliant in intelligence，in painting and in personality。
In the reign of the Liang Generation in the Southern-and-Northern Dynasty（420—589A。D。）there was an artist named Zhang Sengyao，whose fame went down to the later generations。He was especially good at painting mountains，rivers，people and the Buddha。One might have mistaken the scenery in his paintings for real things if he or she did not have insight。Inside quite a lot of temples and Buddhist pagodas set up during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty there were many of his masterpieces。
The legend goes that he drew four dragons on the walls in a temple，but on each of the four dragons'heads he deliberately omitted the eyes。His friends asked him to add the eyes，saying that they would carry no spirit without eyes。Being asked again and again many times，Sengyao found it hard to refuse。He picked up his brush and made two strokes，and the two dragons flapped and puffed and soared into the skies。The two dragons without eyes still remained on the wall，but the on-lookers were frightened and all ran away。