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一叶障目

一叶蔽目，不见泰山，不闻雷霆。

“障”，即蔽。比喻被眼前细小的事物所蒙蔽，而看不到事物的真实情况以及主流和本质。

从前，楚国有个书呆子，家里很穷。

一天，他正在看书，忽然看到书上写着：“如果得到螳螂捕捉知了时用来遮身的那片叶子，就可以把自己的身体隐蔽起来，谁也看不见。”于是他想：“如果我能得到那片叶子，那该多好呀！”

从 这天起，他整天在树林里转来转去，寻找螳螂捉知了时藏身的叶子。终于有一天，他看到一只螳螂隐身在一片树叶下捕捉知了，他兴奋极了，猛一下扑上去摘下那片 叶子，可是，他太激动了，一不小心那叶子掉在地上，与满地的落叶混在一起。他呆了一会，拿来一 只簸箕，把地上的落叶全都收拾起来，带回家去。回到家里他想：“怎样从这么多叶子中拣出可以隐身的叶子呢?

他决心一片一片试验。于是，他举起一片树叶，问他的妻子说：“你能看得见我吗?”“看得见。”他妻子回答。“你能看得见吗?”他又举起一片树叶说。“看得见。”妻子耐心地回答。

他一次次地问，妻子一次次得回答。到后来，他妻子厌烦了，随口答道：“看不见啦!”

书呆子一听乐坏了。他拿了树叶，来到街上，用树叶挡住自己，当着店主的面，伸手取了店里东西就走。 店主惊奇极了，把他抓住，送到官府去。县官觉得很奇怪，居然有人敢在光天化日之下偷东西，便问他究竟是怎么回事，书呆子说了原委，县官不由哈哈大笑，把他 放回了家。

To have one’s view of the important overshadowed by the trivial

Today, we’ll learn a new phrase, which literally means, “a single leaf before the eyes blocks out the view of Mount Tai.” In Chinese, it reads, “Yi Yie Zhang Mu, Bu Jian Tai Shan” . There is an amusing story behind the idiom.

In ancient times, there was a poor scholar. He lived an idle life, never doing any proper work. He was always thinking of crazy ideas to get rich quickly. Though he had read many books, he lacked common sense, so he often did some very silly things.

One day, he read this in a book, “when a praying mantis was trying to catch a cicada, it would hide itself behind a piece of leaf to observe the cicada’s movements and choose the right moment to catch the cicada. Furthermore, anyone who finds a leaf used by a mantis can hide behind the leaf.” The scholar believed what the book said, and began to look everywhere for such a leaf.
Finally, he found one. But, unfortunately, the leaf fell onto the ground and got mixed up with all the other leaves lying there. The scholar decided to gather up all the leaves and take them all home.

After he got home, his wife saw a large pile of leaves and asked him, “What are you doing?” The scholar immediately picked up a leaf and held it in front of his eyes and asked his wife, “Can you see me?” Puzzled, his wife answered, “Yes.” He picked up another and asked the same question. His wife’s answer was the same. After he had tried many leaves, his wife got impatient and said “no” to his question. He was very excited and carefully hid the leaf in a safe place.

The next day, he took the leaf and went to the market. Hiding behind the leaf and thinking he was invisible, he tried to steal other people’s belongings right in front of their eyes. Of course, he was caught red-handed, and turned over to the county authorities.

When the county magistrate questioned him, he held the leaf in both hands and explained how he had learnt about its magical power in a book. The magistrate was very amused by the ridiculous scholar and said, “You bookworm. With a leaf before your eyes, you couldn’t see Mount Tai though it’s right in front of your eyes!” After getting a severe reprimand, the scholar was released.

From this little story, people drew the idiom “a leaf before the eye shuts out Mount Tai.” We use it to describe those who are misled by small things and fail to see the greater picture, or those who can only see the unimportant part of a matter, but fail to see the essence.