北宋初年有位画家叫李成，
在当时的画坛很有名，
尤其他的山水画。
最受画界人推崇，
他描摹北方山野寒林景，
用墨讲究淡与浓。
像风雨明晦烟云雪雾等天气，
出自他笔下有特征。
独到之处人称妙，
“惜墨如金”赞李成。
“惜墨如金”作成语，
常比喻写字绘画作诗文，
落笔着墨最谨慎。
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。
