A Frog at the Bottom of a Well

Characters:

Pronunciation: Jing(2) Di(3) Zhi(1) Wa(1)

Explanation: Said of a person with a limited vision

Tone: Negative

The Story: Long, long ago, a frog lived at the bottom of a well. One day, the frog saw a turtle who was from the sea at the well edge. " Look, how happy I am living here!" He said to the turtle," When I am in a good mood, I can hop along the well edge. And when I am tired, I can go back for a good sleep. Sometimes I can swim for fun with only head and mouth above water, or walk through the soft mud. The crabs and the tadpoles all envy me very much because I am the master of the well. I am free to do whatever I like here. Come in and see how nice it is!"

On hearing this, the turtle did want to get into the well. Before he got his left foot into the well, the well fence caught his right one. He stepped back immediately and started to describe the sea to the frog." Have you ever seen a sea? It is tens of thousands of Li broad, and thousands of feet deep. In ancient time, there were floods nine years out of ten, yet the sea water never swelled much. Later, there were droughts sevens years out of eight, yet the sea water never dropped much. So you can see no floods or droughts can do much to the sea. It is a much better place to live in than this well."

Staring at the turtle, the frog was silent and dazed.

Usage Example (Pinyin): Bie(2) wei(4) ta(1) de hua(4) nan(2) guo(4), wo(3) men(2) zhi(1) dao(4) ta(1) shi(4) jing(3) di(3) zhi(1) wa(1).

Usage Example (English translation): Don't be sad for his comment. We know that he is a frog at the bottom of a well.

Note: The spoken Chinese Mandarin language has 4 spoken tones. We have attempted to re-create those above where after each syllable we tell you (1), (2), (3), or (4) as they correspond to each of the 4 tones. We encourage you to complement your Xianzai.com Chinese Idioms newsletter with a good offline study program.