The spring and Autumn period, Lu is a famous musician, called the Gongming instrument. He has a deep knowledge of music (y), good at playing the piano. His music sounds beautiful, people heard such beautiful music tend to be in ecstasies. A year in the spring, he took an instrument of music came to the outskirts of walking in the fields, (Part X) the genial spring breeze will be grass aroma blow to him, let he felt very comfortable. He looked around and found a big bull in the distance. His fascination blooming, whim to play a song for the bull, so he pluck at the strings, in front of the bull played a piece of elegant the angle of our song ". Although Gong Mingyi played the song is very beautiful, but the grazing of cattle but simply ignore the elegant melody and still head down to graze. Because the bull can hear the sound of the strings, but can not understand the melody of the wonderful mood. Gongming instrument see beautiful music and cannot move the head don't understand music cattle, very helpless. After a while, he came up with an idea. Gongming Yi Fu strings, pop up a section of the strange chaotic sound, some like the buzz of mosquitoes and flies, and some, like lost calf (d) "issued by the sounds. At this time the big bull just like suddenly understand what is like, shook his tail, ears, listening to. Later, people used "to play the lute to a cow" to describe the stupid people speak profound truth, or foreign traveler said in the jargon, a waste of time; now it is also used to laugh at people who talk to no object.
    春秋時(shí)期，魯國(guó)有個(gè)的音樂(lè)家，名字叫公明儀。他對(duì)音樂(lè)有極深的造詣（ｙì），善于彈琴。他的琴聲優(yōu)美動(dòng)聽(tīng)，人們聽(tīng)到如此美妙的琴聲之后往往如醉如癡。 有一年的春天，他帶著琴來(lái)到城郊的田野散步，和煦（ｘù）的春風(fēng)將青草的芳香吹到他的面前，讓他心情非常舒暢。他環(huán)顧四周，發(fā)現(xiàn)不遠(yuǎn)處有一頭大公牛正在吃草。他興致勃發(fā)，突發(fā)奇想要為這頭公牛演奏一曲，于是他撥動(dòng)琴弦，對(duì)著這頭公牛彈奏了一首高雅的《清角之操曲》。 雖然公明儀彈奏的曲子非常悅耳動(dòng)聽(tīng)，但是那頭吃草的牛兒卻根本不理會(huì)那高雅的曲調(diào)，仍然低著頭繼續(xù)吃草。因?yàn)楣ｋm然能聽(tīng)到琴弦發(fā)出的聲音，但是并不能理解曲子中的美妙意境。 公明儀見(jiàn)美妙的琴聲并不能打動(dòng)這頭不懂音樂(lè)的牛，非常無(wú)奈。過(guò)了一會(huì)兒，他又想出了一個(gè)辦法。公明儀撫動(dòng)琴弦，彈出一段段奇怪雜亂的聲音，有的像嗡嗡的蚊蠅聲，有的像迷路的小牛犢（ｄú）發(fā)出的叫聲。這時(shí)候這頭大公牛才像突然明白了什么似的，搖搖尾巴，豎起耳朵，聽(tīng)了起來(lái)。 后來(lái)，人們就用“對(duì)牛彈琴”來(lái)比喻對(duì)愚蠢的人講深刻的道理，或?qū)ν庑腥苏f(shuō)內(nèi)行話(huà)，白白浪費(fèi)時(shí)間；現(xiàn)在也用來(lái)譏笑人說(shuō)話(huà)不看對(duì)象。