The Analects – Chapter 57 (3.17). The lamb that bears civilization

3.17

Zigong wanted to do away with the presentation of a sacrificial sheep at the announcement of each new moon. The Master said, “Ci! You grudge sheep, but I grudge ritual.”

子貢欲去告朔之餼羊。子曰：「賜也，爾愛其羊，我愛其禮。」

Notes

This passage from the Analects records a dialogue between Confucius and his disciple Zigong (Zi Gong) concerning the preservation or abandonment of ritual.

At year’s end, the Zhou Emperor would issue the coming year’s lunar almanac to feudal lords. Each month, on the new moon day, lords performed the Monthly Ancestral Proclamation ceremony at ancestral temples — offering sacrifices while reading imperial decrees, signifying political legitimacy and cosmic order. A live lamb was required as sacrificial offering.

By Confucius’ era, Lu’s rulers had long ceased performing the ceremony, rendering the ritual void. Yet lambs were still slaughtered monthly, preserving only an empty form.

Zigong argued:

“When the ritual is dead, why waste a lamb? Abandon this pretense!”

Confucius replied:

“You cherish material efficiency (the lamb); I cherish institutional symbolism (the ritual). Even diminished, while the lamb remains, the ritual’s form and memory endure — holding hope for revival.”

Zigong advocated utilitarian pragmatism: abolish meaningless form. Confucius championed cultural continuity: preserve form until substance returns. To him, that lamb was no mere offering — but a living vessel of civilization itself.