对牛弹琴

Word by word

to · ox · play · qin

Idiomatic sense

To address a fine or complicated speech to someone who is not in a position to take it in. The picture is a person playing the qin, a zither, to an ox. The ox keeps eating.

The jab can land on the speaker, for misjudging the audience, or on the audience, for being the ox. In real use both prongs appear. It is a mismatch between the talk and the listener. It is not a claim that the listener is an animal in any other respect, and it is a rude thing to say of a person who is present.

Examples

1. 跟他讲这些细节，简直是对牛弹琴。

   Going into that detail with him is a waste of breath.

2. 这些规矩跟他说了也是对牛弹琴。

   You can tell him the rules. They won't land.

Equivalents

Marks say how far the other phrase travels with this one. How to read them.

1. near

   Japanese

   馬の耳に念仏

   A prayer in a horse's ear. A Buddhist phrase said to a listener who will not take the point in. Very close in job, and the animal has changed.

2. partial

   English

   to cast pearls before swine

   A valuable thing wasted on an audience that cannot use it. The English phrase, with its biblical swine, condemns the audience more steadily. The Chinese phrase often condemns the player for choosing that audience.

3. partial

   German

   Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof

   The listener's confession of being lost. 对牛弹琴 is the speaker's futile performance, said from outside.

4. partial

   French

   parler à un mur

   To talk to a wall. The listener is not taking it in. There is no wasted artistry in the French picture, only absence.

Notes

The phrase is at home in speech and in writing. Calling a student an ox with it is an insult, even when the lesson really did not land. The safer use is about the mismatch, including one's own.

The usual account traces the anecdote to Mouzi's Lihuo lun: a musician plays a refined piece to an ox, and the ox goes on grazing. That is the traditional story behind the phrase. This entry does not cite a critical edition or a sentence number.

Sources

• Modern set phrase. The Mouzi anecdote is named as the traditional account and is not quoted. Wording of the entry is original.