English Original
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.
中文翻译
古时候，有一位名叫公明仪的音乐家，他擅长弹奏古筝。然而，他有时也会做出愚蠢的行为。
一天，他看到一头牛在屋旁的田里吃草，顿时来了灵感。他跑出去，开始为这头牛演奏一首优美的曲子。公明仪弹奏得十分精妙，自己也完全沉醉在音乐中。然而，那头牛对这优雅的琴声毫不在意，只顾着吃草。音乐家十分惊讶，无法理解这头牛为何如此冷漠。显然，这不是因为他弹得不好；而是这头牛根本无法理解和欣赏他高雅的音乐。
这个故事衍生出了成语“对牛弹琴”。它意指一个人说话或写作时不考虑听众或读者，通常高估了对方的理解能力。有趣的是，这个成语通常讽刺的是那些无法领会深意的受众，而非说话者本人。