Playing the Lute to a Cow對牛彈琴.

　　Gong Mingyi was a famous musician in ancient times, who played the lute very well.

　　公明儀是古代一位很有名的音樂家，彈得一手好琴。

　　One day, while playing the lute indoors, Gong Mingyi saw a cow eating grass leisurely outside the window. He had a sudden whim to play some melodies for the cow. He first played the "Exercise of Qing Jiao", but the cow still kept on eating grass with head lowered. He seemed to realize that the melody was too highbrow for the cow to understand.

　　有一天，他在室內彈琴，看見一頭牛在窗外悠閑地吃著草。他忽然想彈幾曲給牛聽聽。他先彈了一曲“清角之操”?？墒?，牛還是跟剛才一樣，只顧低著頭吃草。他似乎意識到，這支曲子太高雅了，牛沒有聽懂。

　　So he played several other melodies, imitating the buzzing sounds of swarms of flying mosquitoes, and the bleats of a calf looking for its companions. At this, to his surprise, the cow stopped eating grass, but raised its head, pricked up its ears, wagged its tail and, pacing up and down in small steps, began to listen attentively.

　　于是，他彈了另外幾支曲子，模擬蚊子成群結隊飛來飛去的嗡嗡聲;模擬小牛犢尋找伙伴的眸眸叫喚聲。這樣一來，這頭牛竟然不吃草了，抬起頭，豎著耳朵，甩著尾巴，邁著小步，留心地傾聽起來。