Literal Meaning: the country named Yelang boasts itself

Metaphorical Meaning: it is used to describe someone’s parochial arrogance

During the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC to 9 AD), there was a small country next to the Han Dynasty. The country was called the Yelang Country and was located in today’s Guizhou province in China.

Its size could only match a county of the Han Dynasty and it had quite a small population. However, the king of this country was an arrogant and ignorant man. He asked the emissary from the Han Dynasty: “Is the Han Dynasty larger than the my country?”