Zeng Zi Slaughters the Pig
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Recorded in the Han Feizi, Zeng Zi's wife placated their crying child by promising to slaughter a pig on her return. When she came back, Zeng Zi killed the pig, explaining that a parent must not deceive a child: the deceived child learns to deceive and stops trusting the parent. The story is the classical statement that a promise is rigid. Credit is a very expensive asset, and even an idle remark to a child must be honored at real cost, or the whole system of trust collapses.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Pay the promise: honor every commitment at real cost, however casually it was made. - Teach by act: let behavior, not words, be the lesson others learn from. - Promise rarely: treat reluctance to commit as the default, since every promise carries a price.
Anchor fast decisions
Trust is learned from the other party's behavior, so each kept promise lowers the perceived risk of relying on the next one and each broken one raises it. A remark made to a child is still a commitment that the child observes, and the pig is the concrete cost of making it true. Because credit accumulates only through paid examples, an unpaid cheap promise destroys the same asset an honored expensive one builds.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9F%A9%E9%9D%9E%E5%AD%90verified
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