To waste good material on the wrong audience
The gap between those first two lines is the whole point of a chengyu. It is quoted whole, never assembled, and the literal reading is a picture from the story below rather than a definition — which is why translating the four characters one at a time rarely gets you there.
The musician Gongming Yi performed a refined piece for a grazing cow, which went on eating. Then he plucked out the sounds of mosquitoes and a stray calf — and the cow lifted its head and listened. The fault was never the cow's ears, only the choice of tune.
Source: 《牟子理惑论》Mouzi, c. 2nd century AD
The reading shown is the one each character takes inside this idiom — chengyu keep older readings, so it is not always the everyday one. The meanings are read from the same dictionary that powers the translators.
Want the stroke order for one of these? Each character links to its dictionary entry, which animates it.
对牛弹琴 is pronounced duì niú tán qín and means to waste good material on the wrong audience. Literally it says "play the zither to a cow" — like most chengyu, the literal reading is a picture from a story rather than a definition.
《牟子理惑论》Mouzi, c. 2nd century AD. The musician Gongming Yi performed a refined piece for a grazing cow, which went on eating. Then he plucked out the sounds of mosquitoes and a stray calf — and the cow lifted its head and listened. The fault was never the cow's ears, only the choice of tune.
duì niú tán qín. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice. Tones here are citation tones, so 一 is written yī even where it is said yí in running speech.
对 (duì) To (correct - reply - for - pair - opposite), 牛 (niú) Cow (bull - beef), 弹 (tán) Bullet (ball - bomb); To play (musical instrument), 琴 (qín) Stringed musical instrument (piano - violin - harp). These meanings come from the same dictionary as the translators on this site, and the reading shown is the one the character takes inside this idiom.
Yes. Chengyu are not archaic — they are ordinary educated speech, and they turn up in conversation, newspapers and exams. This one sits in the beginner band, which reflects how common it is and how hard its characters are.
Rebuild 对牛弹琴 from scrambled tiles in the Chengyu Story Puzzle, test yourself on idiom meanings in the Chengyu Quiz, browse all the idioms, or save this one above and review it on your review deck.
Every idiom here comes with the story it was compressed from — that is the rule for being listed, and it is why they stick.
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