这是一首来自大诗人王维的诗，这是一首借咏西施，以喻为人的诗。《西施咏》取材于历史人物，借古讽今。
Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,
How could Xi Shi remain humbly at home?
Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake
And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north:
Lowly one day, no different from the others,
The next day exalted, everyone praising her.
No more would her own hands powder her face
Or arrange on her shoulders a silken robe.
And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked,
Blinding him away from wisdom.
Girls who had once washed silk beside her
Were kept at a distance from her chariot.
And none of the girls in her neighbours' houses
By pursing their brows could copy her beauty.
艳色天下重，西施宁久微。