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.