Zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting were the accomplishments of ancient scholars.
Tips
usage
琴 appears in many instrument names: 钢琴 (piano), 小提琴 (violin), 大提琴 (cello), 吉他 is NOT 琴-based (it's a transliteration). 口琴 = harmonica.
Components
semantic
玨jué
paired jade tablets
Top 玨 - two 王 (jade) side by side, the picture of paired jade tablets or strung jade ornaments. In 琴 these depict the rows of strings stretched across the soundbox of the ancient guqin: jade-toned, finely paired, resonant. Same doubled-jade idea reappears in 班 (group / class). Indexing radical 王 (jade) lives inside this top piece.
Bottom phonetic 今 - supplies the sound (jīn → qín, palatalization; the same phonetic also gives 含 hán, 念 niàn, 钦 qīn). Itself meaning 'now,' it carries no semantic role for the instrument. The compound picture is poetic: paired jade strings (玨) sounding in the present moment (今) - a fitting graph for a stringed instrument prized for its meditative tone.
Filed under radical 玉 (yù, #96) by convention. 玉 is not a separate component in 琴, so no strokes are highlighted.
