When the Master arrived at Wucheng, he heard the sounds of stringed instruments and singing (which was a sign that Ziyou was promoting ritual and musical education in the area). The Master smiled gently and said, “Why use a butcher’s cleaver to kill a chicken?” (Meaning: Why use the grand Way of ritual and music to govern such a small place?)
Ziyou replied, “In the past, I heard you say, Master, ‘When a gentleman learns the Way, he will love others; when ordinary people learn the Way, they will be easy to govern.’”
Upon hearing this, the Master immediately said to the students accompanying him, “My friends, Yan’s words are correct. My previous remark was merely a joke.”
Note
This passage from the Analects vividly portrays the harmonious and equal relationship between Confucius and his disciples, as well as Confucius’ insistence on the universality of “ritual and musical education.”
On the surface, Confucius teased Ziyou with the idiom “using a butcher’s cleaver to kill a chicken,” implying that deploying such grand education in a small town was overkill. However, Ziyou immediately countered using Confucius’ own past teachings, pointing out that ritual and musical education are necessary regardless of whether one is a gentleman or a commoner, or whether the territory is large or small.
Not only did Confucius not get angry at being “corrected” by his student, but he also publicly affirmed Ziyou’s viewpoint and candidly admitted that he was just joking.
This reflects Confucius’s open-mindedness to admit mistakes, his educational style that does not rely on absolute authority, and his encouragement of independent thinking among his disciples. At the same time, it profoundly reflects the core Confucian concepts of “education without class distinction” and the belief that ritual and musical education should apply to all, regardless of scale or social status.
Further Reading
–The Analects, Chapter 13.9
The Master said, “In education, there should be no class distinctions.”
— The Analects, Chapter 15.39
The Master said, “By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.”
— The Analects, Chapter 17.2
These chapters collectively emphasize the universality and necessity of the Confucian thought on “education and transformation.” Whether it is “nearly alike by nature, wide apart by practice” pointing out that ordinary people can be changed through later learning, “no class distinctions in education” advocating for education regardless of social class, or the step-by-step governance strategy of “enrich first, then educate” proposed by Confucius in Wei state, they all share the same internal logic as the “sounds of stringed instruments and singing” in Wucheng. They jointly prove that ritual and musical education is not a privilege of a few nobles, nor is it exclusive to large states; rather, it is the fundamental way of governing and self-cultivation applicable to all people and all places.
子之武城，聞弦歌之聲。夫子莞爾而笑，曰：「割雞焉用牛刀？」子游對曰：「昔者偃也聞諸夫子曰：『君子學道則愛人，小人學道則易使也。』」子曰：「二三子！偃之言是也。前言戲之耳。」
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