夜郎自大 (yè láng zì dà)
The ludicrous conceit of the King of Yelang—Parochial arrogance
An ancient legend tells of a woman who was washing clothes at the riverside. A baby’s faint cry interrupted her work.
But when she looked up, she only saw a bamboo stem floating on the river. She heard the cry again, and it seemed to come straight from the bamboo. The woman picked up the bamboo and split it. To her great joy, she found a baby boy inside. She decided to raise the child on her own, and took him home. She gave him the name 竹 zhú, which means “bamboo”.
And this little boy grew up to become King of Yelang, a tiny state in what is now Guizhou province, southwest China, during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). You might ask, how could this be possible? Well, the state was located far from civilization, in the middle of a vast mountain range. Poor communications and transportation cut Yelang completely off from the rest of the outside world.
The state was so small that there were few young boys who were eligible to become King. The royal court could not afford to be very choosy.
This was not the only problem facing Yelang. Local farmers could not produce much food, and owned almost no livestock.
But these facts did not concern King Zhu. His mother, and later his court attendants, made him feel very important.
One day, a representative of the mighty Han Dynasty finally located Yelang. The Han emperor decided to send an envoy to that tiny land. King Zhu was very arrogant, and didn’t know how to react. His first thought was to question the envoy, whether the Hans were important enough to receive him properly. He asked, “Which is larger, the Han Dynasty or my country?” Of course, King Zhu did not receive a very flattering answer.
This story has been handed down from ancient times and spread across China. And the phrase 夜郎自大 (yè láng zì dà) is now used to describe those who are ignorant and ill-informed, and thus blinded by their self-conceit.
