📖 Meaning
A frog living in a ruined or abandoned well. It is a metaphor for a person of limited knowledge and narrow experience who mistakes their small corner of the world for the whole, unaware of the vastness beyond. A variant of 坎井之蛙.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom derives from the Daoist text Zhuangzi (庄子), specifically the chapter 'Autumn Floods' (秋水), composed during the Warring States period and attributed to the philosopher Zhuang Zhou. In the parable, a frog dwelling in a broken well boasts to a sea turtle from the Eastern Sea about how complete and comfortable his life is, believing the well to be the entire world. When the turtle describes the boundless ocean, the frog realizes the narrowness of his existence. The story became a classic illustration of ignorance born from limited perspective.
💡 Example Usage
他只读了几本书便自以为通晓天下事，不过是埳井之蛙罢了。
Having read only a few books, he fancied himself a master of all knowledge—just a frog in a ruined well.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 埳井之蛙
- Pinyin: kǎn jǐng zhī wā
- Literal Translation: ruined well, of, frog
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4