关于西施的英文材料

Xi Shi (西施, Pinyin: Xī Shī, c. 506 BC - ?) was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of Spring and Autumn Period in Zhuji, the capital of the ancient State of Yue.

Xi Shi's beauty was said to be so extreme that while laundering her garments in the river, the fish were so dazzled that they forgot how to swim and gradually sunk to the bottom of the river, while the condors were so charmed that many stopped flying and plummeted to the ground to their deaths. (Thus comes the idiom 沉鱼落雁, "To cause fish to sink and condors to drop" to describe someone of great beauty. )

King Gou Jian of Yue, king of Yue, was once imprisoned after a defeat in a war by King Fu Chai of Wu, king of the State of Wu. The state of Yue later became a tribulatory to Wu. Secretly planning his revenge, Gou Jian's minister Wen Zhong suggested training beautiful women and offering them to Fu Chai as a tribute. His other min