坐井觀天

See also: 坐井观天

Chinese

to sit; to take a seat; to take (a bus, aeroplane, etc.) warn; well
to look at; to watch; to observe
to look at; to watch; to observe; to behold; Taoist monastery
 
 day; sky; heaven
trad. (坐井觀天) 坐 井 觀 天
simp. (坐井观天) 坐 井 观 天
Literally: “To sit in a well and look at the sky”.

Etymology

Related to 井底之蛙 (jǐngdǐzhīwā). Directly from

老子之小仁義，非毀之也，其見者小也。坐井而觀天，曰「天小」者，非天小也。 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
老子之小仁义，非毁之也，其见者小也。坐井而观天，曰「天小」者，非天小也。 [Literary Chinese, simp.]
From: circa early 9th century, Han Yu (韓愈),《原道》, translated into English as True Faith of a Confucianist by Herbert Allen Giles, 1922.
Lǎozǐ zhī xiǎo rényì, fēi huǐ zhī yě, qí jiàn zhě xiǎo yě. Zuò jǐng ér guān tiān, yuē “tiān xiǎo” zhě, fēi tiān xiǎo yě. [Pinyin]
Lao Tzŭ merely narrowed the scope of charity and duty; he did not attempt to do without them altogether. His view of them was the narrow view of a man sitting at the bottom of a well and inferring the size of the heavens from the small portion visible to himself.

Pronunciation

Idiom

坐井觀天

  1. ignorant of the world; to be living under a rock
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