坐井观天

Pronunciation: zuò jǐng guān tiān Literal meaning: Sit in well view sky

Origin & Usage

This descends from Han Yu's Essentials of the Moral Way: 坐井而观天，曰天小者，非天小也 — sitting (坐) in a well (井) and looking (观) at the sky (天), one calls the sky small; the sky is not small. Han Yu's addition is the second clause, which places the fault squarely in the viewer rather than the view. A narrow outlook that its holder has mistaken for the whole picture.

Examples

English: "Having never traveled abroad, his perspective on international relations was severely limited"

Chinese: 由于从未出国旅行，他对国际关系的看法非常有限