In ancient times, there lived a musician named Gong Mingyi, who was a master of the zheng, a plucked string instrument. However, he could also act quite foolishly.
One day, seeing a cow grazing in a nearby field, he felt inspired. He rushed out and began to play a beautiful tune for the animal. Gong Mingyi played exquisitely, becoming utterly intoxicated by his own music. Yet, the cow paid no heed to the elegant sounds, focusing solely on eating grass. The musician was astonished and could not understand the animal's complete indifference. Clearly, it was not due to poor skill; the cow simply could neither understand nor appreciate his refined art.
This story gave rise to the idiom "Play the lute to a cow." It implies that someone is communicating without considering their audience, often having overestimated the listeners' or readers' capacity to understand. Interestingly, the idiom typically mocks the unreceptive audience rather than the speaker.