A frog living at the bottom of a well said to a great turtle from the Eastern Sea: "How happy I am! I leap on the well railing, rest on the broken bricks by the wall; jump into the water, and it supports my armpits and cheeks; sink into the mud, and it covers my feet. Look at those worms, crabs, tadpoles—none of them compare to me. I own this whole puddle, enjoy this well all to myself—this is true comfort! Why don't you come visit often?"
The Eastern Sea turtle hadn't even put his left foot in when his right knee got stuck on the well mouth. He hesitated and backed out, telling the frog about the ocean: "Have you seen the sea? The sea is wider than a thousand li, deeper than a thousand zhang. In Yu the Great's time, nine years of floods in ten, yet the water didn't rise; in Tang of Shang's time, seven years of drought in eight, yet the water didn't recede."
The turtle continued: "The ocean isn't affected by how much time passes or how much rain falls. Living in the ocean is true happiness!"
The frog at the bottom of the well stared blankly, looking lost. Only then did he realize how small his home was, and that the "big sky and earth" he thought he knew was only as big as the well mouth.
This is the story of "frog at the bottom of the well." It means people with narrow horizons and limited knowledge. Each of us might be a "frog at the bottom of the well"—we think what we see is everything, but the outside world is huge. So we should go out more, learn more, and not be confined to our own little circle.
The tale: a frog lived in a shallow well. One day it met a great turtle from the Eastern Sea and boasted: "See how happy I am! I jump on the well wall, swim in the water - I am master here!"
The turtle said: "Have you seen the sea? It is so vast that a thousand li cannot describe its width, a thousand zhang cannot describe its depth. Living in such a sea is true happiness."
The frog froze - realising the well it thought so big was nothing before the ocean.
The story comes from Zhuangzi Autumn Floods, one of China most famous fables. "Jǐng dǐ zhī wā" became the name for the short-sighted.
It means: narrow vision, yet self-important. It reminds us: the world is huge; there is always a vaster sky than ours.
Today it encourages: do not be a well frog - read more, travel more, talk with different people, and leap out of the well to see the larger world.
For learners it is vivid: learning a foreign language opens a new window - outside is not well-sized but the whole world.
Remember: the frog stays in the well because it does not know the sea exists. Once it knows, it must jump out and see.
The tale reminds us to stay humble: the world is huge, knowledge vast; what we know is always a small part.
But it also gives hope: the frog does not know the sea because it never saw it; humans differ - we can read, travel, learn languages, and actively see a bigger world.
Learning Chinese is one way to leap out of the well. When you can talk with 1.4 billion people in Chinese, your sky is no longer well-sized.
