Scholars must above all avoid arrogant self-importance.
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history
From 《后汉书·马援传》 (Book of the Later Han, Biography of Ma Yuan), where the warlord Gongsun Shu is compared to 'a frog at the bottom of a well' (井底之蛙) who 妄自尊大 — his small kingdom blinds him to how trivial he really is. The image has stuck for two millennia.
usage
Pairs naturally with the opposite 自知之明 (zìzhī zhī míng, 'knowing one's own limits'). 妄 (wàng) means 'absurdly, without basis' — the criticism isn't that you're proud, it's that the pride has no foundation.
