北宋初年有位畫家叫李成，
在當時的畫壇很有名，
尤其他的山水畫。
最受畫界人推崇，
他描摹北方山野寒林景，
用墨講究淡與濃。
像風雨明晦煙雲雪霧等天氣，
出自他筆下有特征。
獨到之處人稱妙，
“惜墨如金”讚李成。
“惜墨如金”作成語，
常比喻寫字繪畫作詩文，
落筆著墨最謹慎。
Use Ink as If It Were Gold
In the early Northern Song Dynasty（960—1127A。D。）there was an artist named Li Cheng。He was well-known in the circle of arts。He was especially good at landscapes。He was admired for depicting the northern mountains and forests in winter。He dwelled much on the lightness and heaviness of the ink's hue，so as to describe wind and rain，bright and dark，smoke and clouds，snow and fog etc。They were all stylistic。People praised him for his unique technique。They said that he used his ink as if it were gold。
“Use Ink as if It Were gold”as an idiom is indicating that one should be very serious，when painting or writing poetry and literature。