📖 Meaning
A single leaf can block one's view of an entire mountain. The idiom describes someone who is so fixated on a trivial detail that they lose sight of the larger picture. It warns against narrow-mindedness and the failure to perceive what truly matters.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase derives from the broader classical image of a leaf covering the eyes so that even Mount Tai becomes invisible, an idea traceable to the ancient text '鹖冠子'. It was crystallized into the four-character form by the Qing dynasty novelist Wen Kang (文康) in 'The Tale of Heroic Sons and Daughters' (《儿女英雄传》), Chapter 25, where he laments that in this world those with pupils as small as beans and who are '一叶迷山,' along with foolish servants, seldom truly understand righteousness. The expression has since been used to satirize people whose limited vision leads them to mistake a fragment of reality for the whole.
💡 Example Usage
凡事切莫一叶迷山，否则必会因小失大。
Never let a single leaf obscure your view of the mountain, or you will lose the greater good for the sake of something trivial.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一叶迷山
- Pinyin: yī yè mí shān
- Literal Translation: one, leaf, obscures, mountain
- Category: Wisdom
- Characters: 4