







传神阿堵 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to capture the very essence and spirit of a person or subject in a painting or literary description, making it remarkably lifelike and expressive, often implying that the key lies in a specific detail, like the eyes”.
During the Jin Dynasty, Gu Changkang (also known as Gu Kaizhi), a renowned painter, would sometimes paint human figures for years without adding the eyes.
When questioned about this, Gu Changkang explained, "The beauty or ugliness of the limbs and body is inherently unrelated to the spirit and charm. To make a portrait truly capture the essence (", referring specifically to the eyes." (传神), the key lies in 'these' (阿堵)

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Open the tool →传神阿堵 (chuán shén ē dǔ) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to capture the very essence and spirit of a person or subject in a painting or literary description, making it remarkably lifelike and expressive, often implying that the key lies in a specific detail, like the eyes”.
传神阿堵 is pronounced chuán shén ē dǔ in Mandarin Chinese.
传神阿堵 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to ancient China. The full story is on this page.
传神:指好的文学艺术作品描绘的人物生动、逼真;阿堵:六朝人口语,即这、这个。形容用图画或文字描写人物,能得其精神。