The Eastern Chin master Ku K'ai-chih is said to have painted a portrait so lifelike that the woman of whom it was made would groan if the painting was pricked with a thorn; similarly, Wu Tao-tzu painted on the wall of a monastery a donkey so real that the monks were kept awake by the sound of its clopping about each night.
世間又傳說東晉顧愷之畫鄰女，以棘刺其心，能使之呻吟；道子也曾畫驢於僧房，每晚竟發出驢踏地奔走之聲，吵得僧侶傷透腦筋。