How to Write 琴 (qín) — Meaning “Stringed musical instrument (e.g., piano, zither)”

Think of two kings (王王) on top playing a duet, but remember that 琴 has a different top: it's actually 珡, which looks like two kings with a dot in between. Imagine two musicians bowing to each other before playing a stringed instrument – the dot is their heads meeting.

The top part 珡 is not two separate 王 characters; it has a short horizontal line connecting the left and right sections. The bottom 今 must be written with a downward stroke that crosses the horizontal line, not separate. Many learners make the top too wide or forget the dot-like stroke inside 今.

琴 (qín) means a stringed instrument and has a phonetic component 今. 珙 (gǒng) is a rare character meaning a type of jade, with phonetic 共. 珞 (luò) refers to a necklace of jade beads, with phonetic 各. Visually, 琴 has a flatter top and a distinct bottom 今, while 珙 and 珞 have different lower parts and are not used for musical instruments.

琴 appears in words like 钢琴 (piano) and 小提琴 (violin), showing it is the generic term for stringed instruments. In Chinese culture, 琴 is one of the "Four Arts" (琴棋书画) that scholars were expected to master, representing refined cultivation. Today, it is also used figuratively in idioms like 对牛弹琴 (playing music to a cow – meaning talking to someone who doesn't understand).

Common words containing 琴 include: 钢琴 (gāng qín) — Piano; 弹琴 (tán qín) — To play a stringed instrument; 小提琴 (xiǎo tí qín) — violin.