Blind Men and the Elephant
The tale of the blind men and the elephant comes from an old Buddhist parable. It gave China the idiom 盲人摸象 (mángrén mō xiàng) — "blind men feeling the elephant". It means judging something from only one small part, and it reminds us to look at the whole picture first.
Long ago, a king kept a huge elephant in his palace garden. Some blind men in the city had never seen an elephant, and they often wondered what it looked like. The king invited them to come and "look" at the elephant with their hands.
The first blind man touched the elephant's long, smooth tusk. "Ah!" he cried. "The elephant is like a big white radish — cool, smooth, and pointed at the end!"
The second blind man felt the elephant's wide, flapping ear. "No, no!" he shouted. "The elephant is like a big winnowing basket — thin, flat, and always waving!"
The third blind man hugged one of the elephant's thick legs. "You are both wrong," he said. "The elephant is like a strong stone pillar — round, thick, and sturdy!"
The fourth blind man grabbed the elephant's thin tail. "A pillar? Nonsense!" he laughed. "It is clearly a rope — thin and long, with a little tuft of hair at the end!"
The fifth blind man touched the elephant's long, swinging trunk. "You are all wrong!" he declared. "The elephant is like a thick water pipe — warm, and it moves all by itself!"
Each man insisted that he was right, and nobody would give in. Their voices grew louder and louder. Soon the friends were quarrelling fiercely.
The king watched them and smiled. "Calm down, my friends," he said. "Each of you touched only one part of the elephant. So each of you knows only one small piece of the truth."
Then the king led their hands across the whole elephant — the tusk, the ear, the leg, the tail, the trunk, and the great round belly. "Now feel it all together," said the king. "The elephant is every one of these parts put together."
The tale of the blind men and the elephant comes from an old Buddhist parable. It gave China the idiom 盲人摸象 (mángrén mō xiàng) — "blind men feeling the elephant". It means judging something from only one small part, and it reminds us to look at the whole picture first.
