the child is father of the man
As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is y à Xi à Oji à nd à, which means you can see the big from the small. It means you can see the festival from the small, or the whole from a small part. From Zhao ziyue.
The origin of Idioms
Laoshe's Zhao ziyue: "such a fact can't be regarded as his important construction, but it's not possible for people who don't fully understand the significance of the new trend of thought to see the big from the small."
Idiom usage
We can see his character from the small.
Chinese PinYin : yǐ xiǎo jiàn dà
the child is father of the man
with hair unshevelled and teeth incomplete. péng tóu lì chǐ
heat intense enough to melt stone and metals. shuò shí liú jīn
deep trenches and high ramparts. shēn gōu gāo lěi