范仲淹写岳阳楼记的时候，根本就没有去过岳阳楼，因为他的好友滕子京在庆历四年春被贬湖南岳州，在任期间的一件政绩工程就是修复岳阳楼。
范仲淹都没去过岳阳楼，怎么写的岳阳楼记?
When Fan Zhongyan wrote Yueyang Tower, he had never been to Yueyang Tower at all, because his friend Teng Zijing was demoted to Yuezhou, Hunan in the spring of the fourth year of Qingli. One of the achievements during his tenure was to restore Yueyang Tower.
Fan Zhongyan has never been to Yueyang Tower, how did he write the story of Yueyang Tower?
In order to increase his popularity, he sent Fan Zhongyan a picture of Dongting in late autumn and asked him to help write an article (note).
And Fan Zhongyan grew up in Taihu Lake, and he may have also borrowed from the beauty of Taihu Lake, and finally made up this famous story through the ages with his own imagination.
为了提高知名度，就给范仲淹送了一幅洞庭晚秋图，请他帮忙写一篇文章（记）。
而范仲淹从小在太湖长大，可能也借鉴了太湖之美，最后凭借自己的想象脑补出了这千古名篇。