During the Northern Song Dynasty, the great literary master Su Shi was a true polymath, excelling in poetry, prose, rhapsodies, calligraphy, and painting, leaving a profound mark on literary history.
A young scholar named Wu Yanlu, working in the Ministry of Rites, felt his knowledge was still shallow, so he visited Su Shi to seek advice on the methods of study.
Su Shi warmly received Wu Yanlu, offering him personal guidance and, in particular, writing a piece titled "A Parable of the Sun." This parable tells the following allegorical story:
Once, a man blind from birth had no idea what the sun was and asked others for help. Someone told him, "The sun's shape is like a bronze plate." The blind man hurried home, had his family find a bronze plate, and tapped it with a clang, exclaiming, "Now I know what the sun is!" Days later, a neighbor's bell rang; hearing it, the blind man shouted joyfully, "I hear the sun! I hear the sun!" Everyone burst out laughing, and someone explained, "That's a bell—the sun makes no sound." "Then what is it really?" the blind man asked. "Its light is bright, like a candle," another replied. Back home, he had his family find a candle, felt it carefully, and declared, "Now I truly know the sun!" Days after, visiting a neighbor, he picked up a bamboo flute and cried, "I've got the sun! I've got the sun!"—again sparking laughter.
In this fable, Su Shi taught that truly mastering knowledge requires more than relying on predecessors' achievements or a superficial understanding—one must study and delve deeply to achieve success, or else, like a blind man tapping a pan and mistaking it for the sun, you'll draw the wrong conclusions.
Later, people used the idiom "Knocking the Pan, Groping for the Candle" to describe one-sided and incorrect understanding.
Source: *Su Shi*, "On the Parable of the Sun"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "扣盘扪烛" came to describe one-sided and incorrect understanding.