📖 Meaning
To touch an elephant with one's eyes closed. It is a metaphor for acting blindly without a clear understanding of the whole situation. The idiom criticizes those who grasp only a fragment of the truth rather than perceiving things in their entirety.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Song Dynasty scholar Hu Zi's work 'Tiaoxi Yuyin Conghua Qianji' (Preface Collection), in the section discussing the poet Huang Tingjian (courtesy name Shangu). Huang Tingjian remarked that outstanding poetry must spring from deep learning, and that later learners of poetry, though occasionally producing brilliant lines, are like someone touching an elephant with closed eyes — they grasp only whatever single part they happen to encounter. The metaphor was used to criticize superficial understanding gained without systematic study.
💡 Example Usage
做研究若不全面考察，只是合眼摸象，难免以偏概全。
If you conduct research without comprehensive investigation, it is like touching an elephant with closed eyes, inevitably leading to overgeneralization from partial evidence.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 合眼摸象
- Pinyin: hé yǎn mō xiàng
- Literal Translation: close eyes, touch, elephant
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4