雙語解漢字: Chinese Characters 20-ox（牛）

The seal form of this character is apictograph of the ox,characterized by two prominent horns.Man’s slave for life,the cow or ox has been exploited to the bone for labour,meat,milk,leather,glue,manure,etc.

甲骨文中的“牛”字，中間一豎表示牛的臉，上面兩豎加彎表示牛角，下面兩小撇表示牛耳。後來人們將“牛”字頭上的一對尖角做了變形，就是現在漢字“牛”的樣子了。

Why Use a Poleaxe to Kill a Chicken?

This story is taken from Analects of Confucius.

Yan Yan（言偃），a student of Confucius,was the magistrate of WuCheng（武成）.Once when Confucius went there he heard the strains of zithers and the sound of singing.Deeming it extravagant to enact lavish ceremonies in such a small town,he said with a sardonic smile:“Why use a poleaxe to kill a chicken?” YanYan defended himself,saying that he was doing what his teacher had encouraged him to do,and thereby would govern WuCheng better.Then Confucius recognized the reason in Yan Yan’s words,and said that he had only been joking.

Later,the metaphor “killing a chicken with a poleaxe” began to be used to describe making a fuss over a trifling matter,or wasting one’s talent on a petty endeavor.

（本段英文翻譯：周苓仲）

殺雞焉用牛刀

這個典故出自《論語》。

孔子到了魯國的一個小城武城，他的學生子游，名叫言偃，當時在武城做縣令。孔子聽到了彈琴唱歌的聲音，他一開始認為，在武成這個小城施行禮樂沒有必要，就笑對言偃說：“殺雞何必要用殺牛的刀呢？”意思是說，治理這樣一個小地方，用不著施行禮樂教育。想不到言偃卻回答說：“從前我聽到老師您說過：‘君子學習了禮樂，就會愛人，小人學習了禮樂，就好使喚了。’我進行禮樂教育正是遵照了老師的教導，這樣做有利於治理武成”。孔子聽了便說：“言偃是對的，我剛才的話只是開個玩笑罷了。”

後來“殺雞焉用牛刀”，就用來比喻小題大做或大材小用。

“Analysis of Chinese Characters by bilingual”，is opened for the convenience of Chinese and foreign friends who are interested in Chinese characters. We’ll push a Chinese character every Monday，analyze its originand related culture. If there is any impropriety，welcome to correct us.

為方便對漢字感興趣的中國朋友和外國朋友，我們開設了《雙語解字》欄目。每周一推送一個漢字的來歷和相關文化，如果其中有不恰當的地方，歡迎中外朋友指正。