shā​zhì​jiào​zǐ

to kill a pig to teach a child

  • created sense approved 杀彘教子/殺彘教子 · shā​zhì​jiào​zǐ · to kill a pig to teach a child — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    杀彘教子 / 殺彘教子

    shā​zhì​jiào​zǐ

    to kill a pig to teach a child

    (idiom) parents must teach by example; refers to a story where the philosopher [[曾子|曾子|zeng1 zi3]] killed a pig after his wife had jokingly promised it to their son, showing that parents should never lie to their children.

    杀 (literal) → 杀/殺 · shā · to kill 彘 (literal) → 彘 · zhì · swine 教 (literal) → 教 · jiào · to instruct 子 (literal) → 子 · zǐ · son

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense