鶏を割くになんぞ牛刀を用いん
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Japanese[edit]
| Kanji in this term | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鶏 | 割 | 牛 | 刀 | 用 |
| にわとり Grade: S |
さ Grade: 6 |
ぎゅう Grade: 2 |
とう Grade: 2 |
もち Grade: 2 |
| kun’yomi | kan’on | kun’yomi | ||
| Alternative spelling |
|---|
| 鷄を割くになんぞ牛刀を用いん (kyūjitai) |
Etymology[edit]
From the Analects of Confucius, a calque of Literary Chinese 割雞焉用牛刀 (gējī yān yòng niúdāo, literally “why use an ox cleaver to kill a chicken?”).
Proverb[edit]
鶏を割くになんぞ牛刀を用いん • (niwatori o saku ni nanzo gyūtō o mochiin)
- something big is not necessary to handle small problems
- Synonyms: 牛刀をもって鶏を割く (gyūtō o motte niwatori o saku), 鶏を割くにいずくんぞ牛刀を用いん (niwatori o saku ni izukunzo gyūtō o mochiin)
Categories:
- Japanese terms spelled with 鶏 read as にわとり
- Japanese terms spelled with 割 read as さ
- Japanese terms spelled with 牛 read as ぎゅう
- Japanese terms spelled with 刀 read as とう
- Japanese terms spelled with 用 read as もち
- Japanese terms calqued from Literary Chinese
- Japanese terms derived from Literary Chinese
- Japanese lemmas
- Japanese proverbs
- Japanese terms spelled with secondary school kanji
- Japanese terms spelled with sixth grade kanji
- Japanese terms spelled with second grade kanji
- Japanese terms written with five Han script characters