


盲翁扪籥 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to make arbitrary judgments or draw hasty conclusions based on a partial understanding or limited experience of something, often leading to mistaken perceptions”. Literally, “Blind old man feels the yue (an ancient wind instrument)”.
In ancient times, a man who was blind from birth asked people what the sun looked like. Someone told him it was like a copper basin. The blind man went home, found a copper basin, and realized it could be struck to make a sound. He then mistakenly believed the sound of striking the basin was the sun.
Later, he was told that the sun does not make a sound but gives off heat like a candle. He then took a candle to be the sun.
One day, he discovered that a 'yue' instrument (a type of ancient wind instrument) greatly resembled a candle, and he once again mistook it for the sun.

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Open the tool →盲翁扪籥 (máng wēng mén yuè) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to make arbitrary judgments or draw hasty conclusions based on a partial understanding or limited experience of something, often leading to mistaken perceptions”.
盲翁扪籥 is pronounced máng wēng mén yuè in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 盲翁扪籥 means “Blind old man feels the yue (an ancient wind instrument)”. It is used to mean “to make arbitrary judgments or draw hasty conclusions based on a partial understanding or limited experience of something, often leading to mistaken perceptions”.
盲翁扪籥 comes from a classical Chinese story dating back to the modern era. The full story is on this page.
比喻只凭片面了解或局部经验就对事物妄加判断。