天生丽质难自弃

From 白居易 《长恨歌》 (Song of Everlasting Sorrow, 806, Tang), the 120-line narrative poem on Emperor Xuanzong and his consort Yang Guifei. On Yang Guifei's first selection into the palace: 杨家有女初长成，养在深闺人未识。天生丽质难自弃，一朝选在君王侧 (The Yang family had a daughter just come of age, raised in the inner chambers, still unknown to the world. Heaven-born beauty is hard to waste - one morning she was chosen to stand at the emperor's side). One of the most quoted openings in all Chinese narrative verse.

Always paired with 一朝选在君王侧 (one morning chosen at the ruler's side). In modern use often applied to talent as well as beauty, a hidden gift that inevitably reveals itself.