The proper environments for playing qin were traditionally said to be alone, for a friend, or at a gathering where participants would also appreciate (or do) calligraphy, painting or other activities popular amongst literati.² The emphasis is on playing for people expected to understand the music (i.e., zhi yin). At the same time, stories such as that of Boya and Ziqi suggest that such people are very rare. So what should or should not qin players expect from an audience?

In this context "playing the qin for an ox" has often been interpreted as expressing the sentiment that you should only play the qin for someone as enlightened as you yourself are. However, perhaps the earliest story along this theme seems rather to suggest that the onus is on the qin player to understand the listener: it is fine to play the qin even for an ox, you just have to know how to make the qin speak in a language the ox will understand. This message comes from a 5th century Buddhist text, which tells a story about Gongming Yi, a qin player said to have lived during the Spring and Autumn period.

Further perspectives on this story can be found in the four inscriptions accompanying the painting at right by Shi Tao (1642-1707; see full image. These include suggestions that oxen may actually be better listeners than most of Shi Tao's contemporaries, whom he criticized as pretentious (compare the comments in this linked article by James Watt).

This original text of these inscriptions is transcribed in a footnote below,³ but they have not yet been translated. About these Alice Li sent the following comments:⁴

For the first of the four poems Ms. Li sent a link (wenku.baidu.com) that added further information regarding the poem.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

¹ Playing qin for an ox (對牛彈琴 dui niu tan qin)
This popular Chinese saying, as with the English "Casting pearls before swine", can be used to criticize the ignorance of the intended recipients, but it can also be a satirical comment on someone who does not take his/her audience into consideration.

7617.16 對牛彈琴 says, "謂對愚人說深理也 Speak profound reasoning to a stupid person". It then quotes two sources, both 18th century, as follows:

1. （錢大昕，恆言錄 Hengyan Lu by Qian Daxin [1728–1804, Wiki]）：
   「莊子，齊物論」（郭象）注，是猶對牛鼓簧耳。「野客叢書」云，對牛彈琴，見「禪錄」。張鑑注，「禪錄」乃「五燈會元」。易林，牛耳聾聵不知聲味。「宏明集」曰，昔公明儀為牛彈清角之操，伏食如故，卽此意。
   The four references here can be translated as follows:
   • According to Commentary (by 晉·郭象 Guo Xiang [d. 312 A.D.; Wiki) on the second chapter of Zhuangzi (Qiwulun, Adjustment of Controversies, which is commenting on the phrase "其好之也，欲以明之彼。非所明而明之，故以堅白之昧終 What they loved [i.e., qin music] they wished to make known to others. But as it could not be made clear, though they tried to make it so, they ended with the obscure [discussions] about 'the hard' and 'the white'"), this (passage from Zhuangzi; see also Legge) is like 對牛鼓簧 (7617.xxx) in front of a cow beating the huang (a reed instrument).
   • Yeke Congshu (compiled by 王楙 Wang Mao of the Southern Song dynasty) says, "Playing the qin for an ox", see Chan Lu (25391.xxx; The Zen Record?). Commentary by Zhang Jian (1768－1850) adds that Chan Lu is Wu Deng Hui Yuan (by 普濟 Puji, 1179-1253).
   • Yi Lin (14130.84: a Han dynasty work by 焦延壽 Jiao Yanshou) says, Ox ears being deaf and stupid do not know about sound and taste.
   • Hongming Ji says, Formerly Gongming Yi (1480.277 Warring States musician) played a qingjue melody for an ox but saw that it continued to eat the way it always had; this expresses the same idea.

2. （通俗編，獸畜，對牛彈琴 Tongsu Bian [Explanation of Common Things], by 翟顥 Zhai Hao [1736-1788]）：
   按「五燈會元」惟簡答僧問直云，對牛彈琴。
   According to Shou Chu (Beasts and Livestock), a section of Wu Deng Hui Yuan (12th c.), Think Simple (惟簡禪師? 11050.xxx) responded to the monk Ask Direct (?) saying, "Play the qin for an ox".

2/1295 對牛彈琴 adds several more quotes, beginning with,

• 牟子理惑論 Mouzi Li Huo Lun (Master Mou's Treatise Settling Doubts, Wiki)
  This is a Buddhist text attributed to a certain 牟融 Mou Rong of the 2nd century, though there is no record of this work until the 5th c. The text says, "公明儀為牛彈琴，但牛依然低頭而食，聽而不聞。比喻講話、做事不看對象。 Gongming Yi played qin for an ox, but the ox just continued to lower its head and eat grass; it heard but did not listen. This is a metaphor for speaking and acting without considering the audience."

The first reference above (from Hengyan Lu) seems to suggest that the earliest form of this expression was "對牛鼓簧 beating the huang for an ox"; note, however, the mention of 簧 huang is only in the commentary by 郭象 Guo Xiang (Wiki), while the relevant passage in Zhuangzi discussed only the qin, not the huang.

The fourth reference, from 宏明集 Hongming Ji (Collection of Universal Brilliance?, an early Buddhist text attributed to 僧祐 Seng You, 445－518); compare 廣宏明集 Guang Hongming Ji from the 7th c.), tells of 公明儀 Gongming Yi (1480.277 春秋，魯，南武城人) playing a "qingjue melody for an ox. This story seems later to have been expanded and/or retold; modern accounts in English often simplify his name to "Ming Yi" and describe him as a qin master. The way the story is now told it seems to suggest the moral is that you should not play the qin for someone who cannot understand qin music: someone not as enlightened as yourself.

However, if my understanding of the original story is correct, it more likely is trying to convey the message that if you want listeners actually to pay attention to what you play, you should give them what they are used to hearing. The original text from Hongming Ji along with my tentative translation is as follows,

For "qingjue melody" see under Shi Kuang and compare it with 清商調 Qingshang Diao
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² Painting by 石濤 Shí Tāo, with inscriptions (ca. 1705)
Shi Tao (1642-1707; Wiki) was a famous painter who also used many other names (e.g., 原濟 Yuan Ji; 1642-ca.1718). Note that he dates from around the same time as the commentary above, and that the further commentary with the full version of his painting 對牛彈琴圖 Depiction of Playing Qin For an Ox (see also this commentary) seems to suggest the ox actually makes a suitable listener.

The original is in the 故宫博物院 National Palace Museum
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³ Inscriptions with the painting by 石濤 Shí Tāo (see original)
The inscriptions with the painting are all poems that can be found transcribed on several sites, including this one. These transcriptions are generally as follows:

1. By 曹寅 Cao Yin, 鹺使原韻 Salt Commission, rhyme sequence

   柳風飂飂白石磢，玄晏先生聘玄賞。
   何來致此觳觫群，三尺龍唇困鞅掌。
   麻姑海上栽黃竹，成連改制無聲曲。
   仙宮岑寂愁再來，烏牸白牯俱不俗。
   瑩角翹翹態益工，寢訛齕飼函真宮。
   朱弦弛縆大雅絕，箏秦世反稱絲桐。
   桐君漆友應難解，金徽玉軫究安在。
   老顛寧為梁父唫，老革詎作雍門嘅。
   此調不傳聽亦靡，刻畫人牛聊復爾。
   一笑雲山杜德機，閉門自覓鐘期子。
   （曹子清鹺使原韻）

2. By Yang Duanmu (楊中訥 15489.83 字耑木), Hanlin Academy, rhyme sequence

   何年畫手顧虎頭，誤墨染成烏牸牛。
   手揮五絃者誰子，知非無意良有由。
   趙瑟秦箏滿都市，白雪陽春輸下里。
   海上移情若箇知，乘閑奏向牛丈耳。
   平原軟草眠綠雲，或寢或訛耳不聞。
   惟牛能牛天自定，愧我人籟離其真。
   今古茫茫廣陵散，世聞寥聞夜未旦。
   更張且和牧豎歌，彈出南山白石爛。
   （楊耑木太史原韻）

3. By Gu Weizhen, nickname Huantie? (顧維禎 44649.290 only 顧維; 幻鐵 9397.xxx 44649.xxx)

   成連去後鍾期往，大地茫茫誰識賞。
   忽來妙手寫入神，開卷新奇各鼓掌。
   朱絃不肯混絲竹，寧向田間理一曲。
   主伯亞旅若聞 □ ，質之牛耳聊免俗。（□＝疑缺一字）
   曲聲休論工不工，五音端本先調宮。
   但使相公能問喘，和平自許出孤桐。
   反覆圖中得真解，非山非水別有在。
   彷彿倪迂昔日心，縱伴煙霞亦悲 □ 。
    □ 歎何人過靡靡，癡腸不斷我與爾。
   收囊同返夕陽村，舊識依然橫笛子。
   （和曹）
   清風洗耳一掉頭，清泉竟有不飲牛。
   值得攜琴向之鼓，我與牛意兩自由。
   由他燕駿無人市，千金 □ 碎宣陽里。
   洋洋灑灑滌心胸，忍使清音入俗耳。
   何期妙筆生煙雲，點染俳諧成異聞。
   初疑憤世戲為此，諦視方知面目真。
   分明熱鬧清涼散，長夜偷歌旦復旦。
   逢時只恐相公嗔，翻道陽春調熟爛。
   （和楊。顧維禎幻鐵。）

4. By 石濤 Shi Tao (nicknames include 清湘 and 大滌子) playfully

   古人事，真豪爽，未對琴牛先絕賞。
   七絃未變共者誰，能使玄牛聽鼓掌。
   一絃一弄非絲竹，柳枝竹枝欸乃曲。
   陽春白雪世所希，舊牯新犢羞稱俗。
   背藏頭似不通徵，招角招非 □ 正工。（□＝疑缺一字）
   有聲欲說心中事，到底不爨此焦桐。
   牛聲一呼真妙解，牛角豈無書卷在。
   世言不可污牛口，琴聲如何動牛剗。
   此時一掃不復彈，玄牛大笑有誰爾。
   牛也不屑學人語，默默無聞大滌子。
   （和曹）
   非此非彼到池頭，數盡知音何獨牛。
   此琴不對彼牛彈，地啞天聾無所由。
   此琴一彈轟入世，笑絕千群百群里。
   朝耕暮犢不知音，一彈彈入墨牛耳。
   牛便傾心夢破雲，琴無聲兮猶有聞。
   世上琴聲盡說假，不如此牛聽得真。
   聽真聽假聚復散，琴聲如暮牛如旦。
   牛叫知音切莫彈，此彈一出琴先爛。
   （和楊。清湘大滌子若極戲為之。）

⁴ Comments from Alice Li
Sent in December 2013; I did some editing and added links to further information.
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