This is a famous statement made by Zhuangzi on how beauty is relative.

Originally it meant there was no difference between a beauty and an ugly

person, because they both came from and reflected Dao. The character 厉 (lai)

meant 癞 (lai, covered in scabs) in ancient Chinese. Whether a person is beautiful

or ugly is but a subjective perspective in the mind of the beholder. Besides,

beauty can turn into ugliness, and vice versa. Zhuangzi, from the perspective of

the origin of all things, stressed that beauty and ugliness are both in accord with

Dao and are inherently the same. This idea has encouraged later literary critics

to look at all things, including literary works, from the perspective that opposite

things complement each other.