Having the images of bamboo ready in one's bosom

胸有成竹

In Song Dynasty (960-1279), there was once an artist called Wen Tong, whose style name was Yuke. He was famous for his bamboo drawings. People wondered why Wen Tong could draw so well. Every day there were always quite a few people who called at his house to ask for one of his bamboo drawings

北宋画家文同，字与可。他画的竹子远近闻名，每天总有不少人登门求画。文同画竹的妙诀在哪里呢?

Actually, Wen Tong loved bamboos so much that he had grown various bamboos around his house. No matter what season it was and no matter whether it was sunny or rainy, he used to go to the bamboo forest to observe how they were growing.

原来，文同在自己家的房前屋后种上各种各样的竹子，无论春夏秋冬，阴晴风雨，他经常去竹林观察竹子的生长变化情况。

He carefully observed the length and breadth of the bamboo poles as well as the shapes and colors of the leaves. Whenever he found something new, he went back to his study, spread a piece of paper and drew what was in his mind on paper. 

他仔细琢磨竹枝的长短粗细，叶子的形态、颜色，每当有新的感受就回到书房，铺纸研墨，把心中的印象画在纸上。

After a long time, the images of the bamboo in different seasons, under different weather conditions and at different moments were deeply imprinted in his mind. Whenever he stood before the paper and picked up a painting brush, various forms of bamboo came into his mind at once. So, when he was drawing bamboo every time, he was confident. And all the bamboos he drew looked almost the same as the real ones.

日积月累，竹子在不同季节、不同天气、不同时辰的形象都深深地印在他的心中，只要凝神提笔，在画纸前一站，平日观察到的各种形态的竹子立刻浮现在眼前。所以每次画竹，他都显得非常从容自信，画出的竹子，无不逼真传神。

When people spoke highly of his paintings, he always said modestly that he had just put the images of the bamboo imprinted in his mind on the paper.

当人们夸奖他的画时，他总是谦虚地说:“我只是把心中琢成的竹子画下来罢了。”

A young man wanted to learn drawing bamboos. When he knew that Chao Buzhi had made a profound study of Wen Tong's drawings, he went to Chao Buzhi for instruction. Chao Buzhi wrote a poem to him. In the poem, there are two lines: “When Yuke was painting the bamboos, he had their images ready in his bosom.”

有位青年想学画竹，得知诗人晁补之对文同的画很有研究，前往求教。晁补之写了首诗送给他，其中有两句:“与可画竹，胸中有成竹。”

The phrase “having the images of bamboo ready in one's bosom”means having plans or designs ready in one's mind before doing a certain job so that success is guaranteed. It also means being calm and sober-minded in dealing with things.
     “胸有成竹”，比喻做事之前已作好充分准备，对事情的成功已有了十分的把握；又比喻遇事不慌，十分沉着。