胸有成竹

Origin and story

Su Shi explains the bamboo-painting method of his friend Wen Tong, also called Wen Yuke, in a record about one of Wen's paintings. Bamboo grows as a living whole, he observes; assembling painted joints and leaves mechanically cannot capture it. A painter must first see the complete bamboo inwardly, then move the brush decisively before that vision slips away. Su admits that understanding the principle is not the same as having the practiced skill to carry it out. The later idiom preserves this relationship between preparation and confident action: a well-formed plan is already present before work begins.