孔子是中国春秋时期（公元前770——公元前476）著名的思想家、教育家，同时还是一位杰出的音乐家，他会弹奏许多乐器，并会作曲、唱歌，他把音乐作为人生修养的最高阶梯。
孔子在学习方面是很虚心，尤为刻苦。有一次孔子随师襄子学鼓琴。曲名是《文王操》。孔子苦苦的练了很多日子，师襄子说“可以了”，孔子说：“我已经掌握了这个曲子的弹法，但未得其数”。又练了很多日子，师襄子又说“可以了，你已于其数”可是孔子仍说“不可以，未得其志”。又过了相当的时间，师襄子认为这回真的可以了，可是孔子仍然认为自己没有弹好这首乐曲，于是，反复的钻研，体会琴曲的内涵直到他看到文王的形象在乐曲中表现出来了，才罢休。他的精神深深的感动了师襄子，直到现在，孔子的名言“学而不厌，诲人不倦”仍是我们的座右铭。
Confucius, the famous Chinese thinker and educator in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC), was also an outstanding musician. Confucius not only could play many kinds of musical instruments but also was good at composing and singing.
His valuable modest personality attributed to his achievement in music. After he learned Guqin from the musician Shi Xiangzi for some days, the instructor said his performance was "good". Confucius, however, was not satisfied with the progress and kept training himself for a longer time. After practicing for another couple of days, his performance was regarded as "excellent" by the instructor, but Confucius still did not believe that he had reached the perfect performance because he could not feel the spirit of the melody when he played the Guqin. It is not until he finally realized and showed the inner spirit of the melody that Confucius stopped practicing. His perseverance won himself the respect from Shi Xiangzi. Even today, Confucius's edification of "Being insatiable in learning" is still regarded as a motto by most people.