走出夜郎国 Walking out of the State of Yelang

During the Han Dynasty, there was a small state called Yelang in Southwest China, roughly located in today's Guizhou Province. Although it was an independent state, its territory, population and its products are pitifully small. However, since Yelang was the largest state in the neighboring areas, the king of Yelang thought that the state he ruled was the largest in the world.

Once, Emperor of the Han Dynasty sent an emissary to Yelang. The proud and ignorant king didn't know that the state he ruled was only as big as a prefecture of the Han Dynasty. He also asked the emissary from the Han Dynasty: "The Han Dynasty and the State of Yelang, which is bigger?"

This is the origin of the Chinese idiom. Alas, the king of Yelang didn't know that there was the Han Dynasty. They closed their states to the external contact, shut their eyes and stopped their ears, and didn't understand the conditions of the outside world.

We will also find that people from small places are more likely to be self-centered and arrogant.

Small places have little competitive pressure and slow pace of life where people's desires and ideas can be realized easily. Living a carefree life people there are easy to be self-satisfied, gradually expanding themselves, and beginning to be arrogant and look down on others. For example, in the downtowns, people have a better sense of being better than others.

In fact, this is a cognitive problem. If you can't see the breadth and brilliance of the outside world, you naturally can't see your narrowness and insignificance, because there is no gap without comparison.

If a 30-year-old youth has no boy or girl friend, or is not married, he or she will be looked at differently by others in some small places, and even regarded as unconventional. But in such big cities as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the age of 30 means that youth has just begun.

In some small places in the north, it is dark at 9 p.m. and many people have already fallen asleep. But in some big cities in the south, nightlife has just begun since 9 p.m.

An old man of 80 or 90 years old is very old in a small place, sitting idle to wait for that day to come. But in big cities, old people aged 80 or 90 can live like young people, playing the piano, singing and dancing, writing poetry, writing books and traveling around the world.

I suddenly remembered the story of "frog at the bottom of a well, sitting in a well and watching the sky", which is almost the same as the idiom “ludicrous conceit of the king of Yelang”. If you can't get out of your comfortable small circle and place, you can't see the wonderful world outside, and you won't change your cognition. Only when you get out of that well, that small place will you find that the world is so big and you are so small. Only at this time will you have new cognition and new action.

汉朝的时候，在中国的西南有个名叫夜郎的小国家，大致位于今天的贵州省。它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是国土很小，人口也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，夜郎国国王就以为自己统治的国家是天下最大的国家。

有一次，汉朝派使者来到夜郎，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个州县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问汉朝使者：“汉朝和夜郎国，哪一个大？”
这就是汉语成语夜郎自大的由来，呜呼，竟不知有汉。夜郎国闭关自守，闭目塞听，不了解外界的情况，也就不足为怪了。

我们还会发现一个问题，那就是来自小地方的人更容易自大、自我和傲慢。

小地方竞争压力小，生活节奏慢，人们的欲望和设想很容易就能够实现。过着衣食无忧的生活，容易自我满足，渐渐地自我膨胀，开始自大而瞧不起他人来。比如，小城市里的人有车子有房子，比上不足，比下有余，逐渐形成一种自我良好的感觉，在自己的小天地里悠哉悠哉。

实际上，这就是一个认知的问题。看不到外面世界的广博和精彩，自然就看不到自己的狭隘和渺小，因为没有对比就没有差距。

一个30岁的青年如果还没有对象或者还没有结婚，在一些小地方就会遭到别人的异样的眼神，甚至被视为另类。可在北上广一些大城市里，30岁意味着青春刚刚开始。

在北方的一些小地方，晚上九点已是漆黑一片，很多人早已进入了梦乡，可在南方一些大城市里，晚上九点，夜生活刚刚拉开帷幕。

八九十岁的老人，在小地方已是老态龙钟，日薄西山，老气横秋，无力等待着那一天的到来。可在大城市里，八九十岁的老人原来可以活成年轻人的样子，弹琴、歌舞、做诗、著书、去世界各地旅行……

我突然想起“井底之蛙，坐井观天”的故事，这与夜郎自大几乎是如出一辙。走不出自己舒适安逸的小圈子、小地方，就看不到外面精彩的世界，就不会改变自己的认知。只有走出了那口井，那个夜郎国，你才会发现原来世界那么大，自己是那样的渺小。唯在此时，你才会有新的认知，新的行动。