The Frog at the Bottom of the Well

About this story

The Frog at the Bottom of the Well tells the story behind the Chinese idiom 井底之蛙 (jǐng dǐ zhī wā), literally 'the frog at the bottom of the well.' It comes from the Zhuangzi, the Daoist classic that bears the name of the philosopher Zhuang Zhou (fourth century BCE), in the chapter Autumn Floods (Qiu shui): a frog in a broken-down well boasts to a turtle from the Eastern Sea, who can't even get one foot inside, and the turtle tells him about the ocean. This version keeps the original's floods of Yu the Great and droughts of King Tang, and retells them in words children can follow.

Tips for telling it

• Make the frog fast and squeaky when he boasts, then slow right down for the turtle's sea, so your child can hear the difference between a well and an ocean.
• Afterwards, ask: what's something you've never seen and would love to go and see?
• Older children might like a famous line from the same chapter: you can't talk to a frog in a well about the sea, because it is bound by the place it lives.

Questions people ask

What does 井底之蛙 mean?

井底之蛙 (jǐng dǐ zhī wā) means 'a frog at the bottom of a well.' It describes someone with a narrow view of the world who thinks they know it all, like a frog who believes the sky is only as big as the mouth of its well.

What is the moral of the frog in the well?

Don't be content with your own small corner, and don't assume you already know everything. Keep looking, listening and learning, and you'll find out how big the world really is.

Where does the story of the frog in the well come from?

It comes from the chapter Autumn Floods (Qiu shui) of the Zhuangzi. There, Prince Mou of Wei tells the debater Gongsun Long about a frog in a broken well who boasts to a turtle of the Eastern Sea; the same chapter says a frog in a well can't be told about the sea, because it is confined to its little space.

Is there an English idiom like 井底之蛙?

English has no exact match, though 'can't see past the end of your nose' comes close. Japanese and Korean both borrowed the frog in the well as their own saying for narrow-minded people.