Chinese idiom · 成语
小巫见大巫
Meaning
A small shaman meets a great one; to be outclassed.
Character by character
Origin and story
literary expressionYiwen Leiju (藝文類聚), volume 82, preserves a passage attributed to a lost portion of the Zhuangzi: a lesser shaman meets a greater one and throws away the grass used in divination. This is a surviving quotation, not a story found in a named chapter of the present Zhuangzi.
The image also appears in a letter by Chen Lin quoted in commentary to the Sanguo Zhi, volume 53. Responding to Zhang Hong’s praise, Chen says his own reputation owes something to a shortage of writers around him; beside more accomplished men, he is the small shaman facing a great one. That self-deprecating comparison helped make the phrase useful for any striking difference in ability or scale.
Sources and further reading
In everyday life
我以为自己很会做面包，到了姐姐的烘焙店才知道是小巫见大巫。
I thought I was good at baking bread until I visited my sister's bakery and realized how outclassed I was.
For a marked difference in skill or scale; can be modest about oneself or dismissive of another.