Translation: Someone was painting for the King of Qi. The King asked him, “What is the most difficult thing to paint?” He said, “Dogs and horses are the most difficult to paint.” The King of Qi asked again, “What is the easiest thing to paint?” He said, “Ghosts and monsters are the easiest. Dogs and horses are familiar to people. They will appear in front of you sooner or later. You can’t just paint them similarly, so they are difficult to paint; ghosts and monsters are invisible and will not appear in front of people, so they are easy to paint.”
Meaning: Making up stories and writing and painting randomly is the simplest thing; but to truly understand objective things and express them appropriately is not an easy thing.
译文：有人为齐王作画，齐王问他：“画什么最难？”他说：“狗、马最难画。”齐王又问：“画什么最容易？”他说：“画鬼怪最容易。狗、马是人们所熟悉的，早晚都出现在你面前，不可仅仅画得相似而已，所以难画;鬼怪是无形的，不会出现在人们面前，所以容易画。”
寓意：胡编乱造，胡写乱画，这是最简单的事；但要真正认识客观事物，并恰如其分地表现它，就不是一件容易事了。
《古代寓言·画什么东西最难》
客有为齐王画者，齐王问曰：“画孰最难者？”曰：“犬马最难。”“孰最易者？”曰：“鬼魅最易。”夫犬马，人所知也，旦暮罄于前，不可类也，故难；鬼神，无形者，不罄于前，帮易之也。
——《韩非子》
Painting Ghosts
There was an artist who worked for the prince of Qi.
“Tell me,” said the prince, “What are the hardest things to paint?”
“Dogs, horses, and the like,” replied the artist.
“What are the easiest?” asked the prince.
“Ghosts and monsters,” the artist told him. “We all know dogs and horses and see them every day; but it is hard to make an exact likeness of them. That is why they are difficult subjects. But ghosts and monsters have no definite form, and no one has ever seen them; so they are easy to paint.”
Han Fei Zi
