庐山真面目

庐山真面目

Literally means:

what Lushan Mountain really looks like

Actually means:

the truth about somebody or something; the real appearance of somebody or something

It is the third line of a poem by Su Shi, a litterateur of the Song Dynasty. The complete poem goes like this: 横看成岭侧成峰，远近高低各不同，不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中. It literally means that in Lushan Mountain, people see different sceneries in different positions and they fail to get a panoramic view of the mountain due to their limited field of vision, so they cannot recognize the true face of Lushan Mountain. It implies that an observer may be blind if he is involved in a complicated situation, and only by jumping out of it and see it from outside can he know the truth about a person or a matter.

The phrase figuratively means the fact of something or the real identity or character of somebody.

来自宋代文学家苏轼描绘庐山的诗句:“横看成岭侧成峰，远近高低各不同，不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。”诗的字面意思是说，到庐山玩的人不但所处的位置不同，看到的景物各不相同，而且每个人的视野有限，看到的只是庐山的局部而不是全部，所以不识庐山的真实面目；深层意思是说，观察事物的人如果处在错综复杂的事物之中（身在此山中）就会当局者迷，因此必须跳出当前的处境，在外面观察，才能真正认识事物的本来面目。

庐山真面目，比喻事物的真相或人的本来面目。