略识之无

idiom

barely literate; to have only a smattering of characters

This idiom originates from a Tang Dynasty story about the poet Bai Juyi. As an infant, he was shown the characters "之" and "无," and he could point them out. "Slightly recognizing *zhi* and *wu*" thus became a modest way to say one has only basic literacy. It is now used self-deprecatingly or to describe someone with minimal education.