CHINESE PRACTICE
井底之蛙
(jing3 di3 zhi1 wa1)
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報記者古德謙攝
井底之蛙，也稱坐井觀天，源於莊子外篇的「秋水」。文中講述有隻青蛙住在井中，一天碰到一隻來自
東海的巨鱉。青蛙與巨鱉閒聊起來。
青蛙炫耀起自己在井裡的生活多美好、多自由、
多輕鬆，還自稱為一井之主。
巨鱉聽了之後也想進入井中，卻發現自己身體太大，
居然連腳都放不進去。
巨鱉於是告訴青蛙海洋有多麼大、
多麼深，說海洋與井水是完全無法比較的。
這個成語常用來諷刺見識狹窄卻自以為是的人。
他老愛賣弄知識，其實是井底之蛙。
(He’s always trying to show how much he knows, but really his knowledge is very limited.)
人要活到老學到老，不然很容易就變成井底之蛙。
(You should never stop learning, otherwise you’ll become just like the proverbial frog in the well.)
英文練習
Living a blinkered existence
The Chinese proverb to the left derives from a discussion in the “Floods of Autumn” (秋水) book attributed to the ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi (莊子). The writer compares an ordinary person’s understanding of the world with the expansive knowledge and wisdom of the philosopher. He imagines a frog in a well attempting to convince a turtle that has swum in the ocean of the joys of living in its tiny hole in the ground. The frog, of course, eventually comes to the realization that its own experience of life has been vastly curtailed by the limits of the environment in which it lives.
In English, we can also talk of “living a blinkered existence.” Blinkers are pieces of plastic or leather placed to the side of a horse’s head to prevent it looking back or, sometimes, to the side. They are there to ensure the horse continues to look solely in the direction its owner wants it to.
I’m worried that he doesn’t know the ways of the world. He has lived such a blinkered existence.
（我很擔心他不諳世故，他就像井底之蛙一樣。）
I’ve already spent so long trying to convince him. He has such a blinkered outlook.
（我已經花了多少時間，到頭來還是無法說服他。他的觀念非常狹隘。）
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