📖 Meaning
A metaphor for judging a whole matter based on partial or one-sided understanding and experience. It criticizes those who make sweeping conclusions from fragmentary information. The idiom warns against mistaking a local impression for the complete picture.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (《大般涅槃经》), a Buddhist scripture translated into Chinese during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. In the story, several blind men each touch a different part of an elephant—one feels the tusk and declares the elephant like a radish root, another feels the ear and says it resembles a winnowing basket, while others touch the head, trunk, legs, back, belly, and tail, comparing them to a stone, a pestle, a mortar, a bed, a grain measure, and a rope. Each insists his own impression is correct, yet none grasps the whole animal. The parable was later used to satirize people who form comprehensive judgments from one-sided knowledge.
💡 Example Usage
你只看了一面之词就下结论，岂不是盲人摸象吗？
You reach a conclusion after hearing only one side—aren't you like the blind men touching the elephant?
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 盲人摸象
- Pinyin: máng rén mō xiàng
- Literal Translation: blind, person, touches, elephant
- Category: Knowledge
- Characters: 4