井底之蛙 – Jing Di Zhi Wa – Narrow-Minded, Ignorant

Chengyu

井底之蛙 – jǐng dǐ zhī wā

Chinese Character Break Down

井 – well
底 – bottom
之 – marker of possesive relation, like the modern 的
蛙 – frog

井底之蛙: Frog at the bottom of the well

Idiom Meaning

This Chengyu describes a very ignorant or narrow-minded person, a person with limited sight.

Chengyu Examples

The use of this Chengyu is actually very straight-forward.

他这个井底之蛙呀！
nǐ zhège jǐngdǐzhīwā ya!
He’s so narrow-minded!

不要像井底之蛙一样。
búyào xiàng jǐngdǐzhīwā yíyàng.
Don’t be so narrow-minded.

Chengyu Story and Background

Once, there was a frog. The frog spent all his life sitting in a well. Everytime he looked up at the sky, he thought “How small the world is!”

One day, a turtle came by, looked down the well and saw the frog sitting there. “How limited this frog’s sight is…”, thought the turtle.

That’s basically it. I love how an incredible amount of Chinese Idioms and stories involves turtles for no reason.