Chinese

		to kill; to murder; to slaughter	fowl; chicken	where; how	to use	an ox cleaver; a cleaver for butchering oxen
trad. (殺雞焉用牛刀)		殺	雞	焉	用	牛刀
simp. (杀鸡焉用牛刀)		杀	鸡	焉	用	牛刀

Proverb

殺雞焉用牛刀

1. Why use an ox cleaver to kill a chicken?

   除此之外有時候因應某些特殊的需求，製作出簡單的應用程式，應用程式可能只會執行一次，或者永遠只應付一種需求，殺雞焉用牛刀，寫死來縮短開發的時間，也是一種不錯的決策。 [MSC, trad.]

   除此之外有时候因应某些特殊的需求，制作出简单的应用程式，应用程式可能只会执行一次，或者永远只应付一种需求，杀鸡焉用牛刀，写死来缩短开发的时间，也是一种不错的决策。 [MSC, simp.]

   From: 2007: anon., Hard coding (寫死)

   Chú cǐ zhī wài yǒu shíhòu yīn yìng mǒu xiē tèshū de xūqiú, zhìzuò chū jiǎndān de yìngyòngchéngshì, yìngyòngchéngshì kěnéng zhǐ huì zhíxíng yīcì, huòzhě yǒngyuǎn zhǐ yìngfù yī zhǒng xūqiú, shā jī yān yòng niúdāo, xiěsǐ lái suōduǎn kāifā de shíjiān, yě shì yī zhǒng bùcuò de juécè. [Pinyin]

   Besides this, there are times when one creates a simple application in order to meet a special requirement. Perhaps the application will only be run once, or will never doing anything else but that one task. In such cases, why use an ox cleaver to kill a chicken? In terms of shortening development time, hard coding would not be a bad strategy.

Synonyms

• 割雞焉用牛刀／割鸡焉用牛刀 (gējī yān yòng niúdāo)

References

• “殺雞焉用牛刀”, in Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典) (in Mandarin), accessed 2008-05-06