Idiom Explanation:
The frog at the bottom of the well can only see a piece of sky as big as the mouth of the well. It is often used as a metaphor for those who are narrow-minded and short-sighted, but blindly arrogant, not receptive to new things and ignorant of the big picture.
Pronunciation:
坐井观天
zuò jǐng guān tiān
Origin:
唐·韩愈《原道》：“坐井而观天，曰天小者，非天小也。”
Story:
This is a fable. In an abandoned well, there lived a frog. This little frog is very happy with the little world he lives in, and has to brag about it whenever he gets a chance.
One day, after he had eaten and drunk enough, he was crouching on the well railing, bored, when he suddenly saw a big sea turtle walking not far away. The frog shouted at the top of its lungs, “Hey, sea turtle, come over here!” So, the sea turtle came to the dry well. The frog immediately opened his mouth: “You’re lucky today, I’ll let you see my place. It’s a paradise! You’ve probably never seen such a spacious dwelling, right?” The sea turtle looked into the well, only to see the shallow bottom of the well accumulated a muddy water full of green moss, but also smelled a pungent smell of strange.
The sea turtle frowned and hastened to retract its head. The frog didn’t pay any attention to the turtle’s expression, and continued to boast to the turtle with its big belly, “Look, how comfortable I am living here! When I’m happy, I jump around the well, and when I’m tired, I go to the well wall and rest in the stone cave. Sometimes I soak my body comfortably in the water, and sometimes I take a walk in the mud happily. Look at the little insects, crabs and tadpoles next to me, who can live happier than me! I’m all alone in this abandoned well, free as a bird! Why don’t you go into the well and have a look around?”
When the sea turtle heard the frog’s talk, he felt obliged to go to the well, but before he could get his left leg in, his right knee got caught in the well’s fence. The sea turtle slowly retreated and asked the frog, “Have you ever seen the sea?” The frog shook its head. The sea turtle went on to say, “The sea is more than a thousand miles wide; the depth of the sea is more than a thousand feet. In ancient times, nine out of ten years were flooded, but the sea did not increase; seven out of eight years were droughted, but the sea did not decrease. The sea is not affected by droughts and floods, so living in the vast and boundless sea is the real pleasure!”
The frog was dumbfounded, bulging his eyes, and could not close his mouth for half a day. Accordingly, later people deduced two idioms with similar meanings: “Frog at the bottom of the well” and “Watching the sky under a well “.
Similar Idioms:
- 井底之蛙
