conceit

Aside from its common usage, signifying "excessive pride", in literary terms, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs an entire poem or poetic passage. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

(v. t.)
To conceive; to imagine.
  

(v. i.)
To form an idea; to think.
  

(n.)
That which is conceived, imagined, or formed in the mind; idea; thought; image; conception.
  

(n.)
Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
  

(n.)
Faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension; as, a man of quick conceit.
  

(n.)
Design; pattern.
  

(n.)
An overweening idea of one's self; vanity.
  

(n.)
A fanciful, odd, or extravagant notion; a quant fancy; an unnatural or affected conception; a witty thought or turn of expression; a fanciful device; a whim; a quip.
  

Noun
1. feelings of excessive pride
(synonym) amour propre, self-love, vanity
(hypernym) pride, pridefulness
2. the trait of being vain and conceited
(synonym) vanity
(hypernym) pride
(hyponym) boastfulness, vainglory

ye4 lang2 zi4 da4
The ridiculous boastful king of Yelang.
The king of Yelang thought his country was larger than it was. This expression refers to a person who is blinded by presumptuous self-conceit. A humblebee in a cow-turd thinks himself a king.