Chinese idiom · 成语
井底之蛙
Meaning
A person with a narrow worldview, unaware of the broader world.
Character by character
Origin and story
Philosophical fableThe Qiushui (秋水, ‘Autumn Floods’) chapter of Zhuangzi (莊子) compares limited understanding to a frog confined to a well. In one passage, the river god reaches the sea and realizes how small his own domain is. The sea god explains that a well frog cannot understand the ocean because its experience is restricted by where it lives.
The same chapter also tells of a well frog boasting to a sea turtle about its comfortable home. When the turtle describes the sea’s vastness, the frog is astonished. These are philosophical fables about the limits of one’s perspective. Today the idiom describes a person who knows only a small part of the world and mistakes that limited experience for a complete picture.
In everyday life
和各地的同事交流后，我才发现自己以前像个井底之蛙。
After talking with colleagues from different places, I realized how narrow my perspective used to be.
Can sound insulting when directed at someone else; self-reflection is a gentler use.