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琴瑟之交 kinshitsu no majiwari Close as Two Zithers

琴瑟之交, a bond like two zithers sounding together: from a poem to a friend far away, kept in the anthology of 751, and read today as a marriage.

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Japanese Scroll of Close as Two Zithers (kinshitsu no majiwari) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Close as Two Zithers琴瑟之交kinshitsu no majiwari

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

琴瑟之交 kinshitsu no majiwari, a bond like the qin and the se, two Chinese zithers sounding together, is a phrase of Fujiwara no Umakai 藤原宇合 (694–737), in a poem he wrote while governor of Hitachi after 719 to a friend who had stayed in the capital, kept in the Kaifūsō 懐風藻 of 751, the oldest surviving Japanese collection of poems in Chinese [1][2][3]. There it is a friendship between men, set as the pair of 芝蘭之契, the pledge of 芝 and orchid, and the commentaries on the poem of 1927, 1933 and 1937 read it so [3][4][5][6]. No 琴瑟之交 has been found in the Chinese texts searched here; the figures of qin and se for men that were found, three in the sixth-century anthology Wenxuan 文選, Cao Zhi's elegy for Wang Can, who died in 217, among them, are each glossed by its commentator from the Book of Songs' line on wife and children [7][8][9]. In the Japanese pages read, the phrase is said in 1884 of a bond of passion and in the 1890s of a marriage, while J. C. Hepburn's Japanese–English dictionary, in its fourth edition of 1888 (copyright and preface 1886), still gives it as intimate friendship and two Japanese dictionaries, of 1912 and 1925, say 琴瑟 of brothers and friends in harmony beside husband and wife; the Japanese dictionaries read today give the marriage alone as the figure, and デジタル大辞泉 sets 琴瑟の交わり under it [10][11][12][13][14][15].

Overview

The sense. デジタル大辞泉 enters 琴瑟 with two senses, １ 琴と瑟（大琴）。 ２ むつまじい夫婦仲のたとえ。「琴瑟の交わり」, 1 the qin and the se (a large qin); 2 a figure for a close and loving married couple, as in 琴瑟の交わり; 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives the instruments, with a first instance from a banquet poem of the Kaifūsō, and then 夫婦、または夫婦の間の愛情についてのたとえ, a figure for a married couple, or for the love between them, with a first instance from Natsume Sōseki's I Am a Cat of 1905–06; 普及版 字通 gives 音の相和するをいう。また、夫婦の相親しむをいう, said of their notes in harmony; and of a husband and wife close to one another [15]. No dictionary read enters 琴瑟の交わり as a headword. JMdict, the free Japanese–English dictionary, glosses 琴瑟 qin and se (two different kinds of Chinese zither) and happy marriage, and has no entry for the phrase [16]. Its neighbor in the old figures of friendship, 金蘭の交わり, a bond of gold and orchid, is a headword, 強くて気高い友情のたとえ, a figure for a strong and noble friendship [17].

The words. 琴 is the qin and 瑟 the se, which the 日本国語大辞典 calls a large qin [15]; both are zithers, which Hepburn renders harp and harpsicord [12]; a dictionary of classical and medieval Chinese renders the pair zither and zithern and warns against lute, which is the pipa, a quite different instrument [18]. 之 is of. 交 is majiwari, a bond between people, the word of 金蘭の交わり [17]. The figure is the two instruments sounding together: the 1937 commentary says the phrase comes 琴瑟を鼓して、聲相應ずるより, from playing the qin and the se, their notes answering one another [6]. Where the marriage comes from is the Book of Songs: 大辞泉 derives 琴瑟相和す from the song 常棣 [19], whose line 妻子好合，如鼓琴瑟, wife and children in accord, as when qin and se are played, is the one the Wenxuan's commentator quotes [9]; 字通 cites the song 關雎 [15], whose 琴瑟友之, with qin and se befriend her, the old subcommentary to the Mao text reads as the consort's welcome to a lady of virtue, 言「友」者，親之如友, it says "befriend": holding her dear as a friend [20]. The marriage figure was shaped like a friendship from the first.

The reading. Kinshitsu no majiwari: a translation of 1884 sets the ruby きんしつ on 琴瑟 and まじはり on 交 [10], and Hepburn enters KINSHITSU 琴瑟 … — no majiwari [12].

The historical record

The poem

After 719, Umakai in Hitachi. Umakai went to the Tang court as vice-envoy in 717 and was back in 718; after 719 he was governor of Hitachi and inspector of three provinces beside it, and in 724 he was minister of ceremonial and led the army against the Emishi; he died of smallpox in 737 [2]. The Kaifūsō, a single book of sixty-four poets and a hundred and twenty poems, is dated 751 by its preface [1]. Umakai's poem is headed 七言在常陸贈倭判官留在京一首 (并序), a seven-character poem written in Hitachi and sent to Yamato the 判官, who stays in the capital, with a preface, and the National Diet Library's copy of the print of 1926 reads it so [3].

The preface. The preface says the two have been friends for years, 僕與明公。忘言歲久, you, my lord, and I have been friends past the need of words these many years; that they were given posts on the same day and parted, 如何授官同日。乍別殊鄉, how was it that we were given our offices on one day and were suddenly parted to different lands; that Umakai has waited three years, 待君千里之駕。于今三年, I have waited for your carriage from a thousand li three years now; and that when the emperor called for able men the friend alone was passed over, 明公獨自遺闕此擧, you alone, my lord, were left out of this choosing. It consoles him: 歲寒後驗松竹之貞。風生廼解芝蘭之馥, only when the year turns cold is the constancy of pine and bamboo proved; only when the wind rises is the scent of 芝 and orchid known; 大器之晚。終作寶質, a great vessel comes late, and becomes a treasure in the end [3].

The poem, as the 1926 print reads it, its notes on variants set aside (see Notes):

自我弱冠從王事。風塵歲月不曾休。褰帷獨坐邊亭夕。懸榻長悲搖落秋。琴瑟之交遠相阻。芝蘭之契接無由。無由何見李將鄭。有別何逢逵與猷。馳心悵望白雲天。寄語徘徊明月前。日下皇都君抱玉。雲端邊國我調絃。淸絃入化經三歲。美玉韜光度幾歲。知己難逢匪今耳。忘言罕遇從來然。爲期不怕風霜觸。猶似巖心松柏堅。

From the time I came of age I have been in the sovereign's service; through wind and dust, months and years, I have never rested. I lift the curtain and sit alone at evening in the frontier post; with my guest's bench hung up I grieve long in the autumn of falling leaves. Our bond of qin and se is held far apart; our pledge of 芝 and orchid has no way to meet. With no way, how shall 李 be seen with 鄭? Parted, how shall 逵 meet 猷? My heart runs out to you as I gaze, downcast, at the sky of white clouds; I send you words, pacing before the bright moon. Beneath the sun, in the imperial capital, you hold a jade; at the edge of the clouds, in a border land, I tune my strings. Three years my clear strings have been at their work; how many years has the fine jade hidden its light? A friend who knows you is hard to meet, and not only now; one with whom words are forgotten is rare, and always was. Let us pledge not to fear the touch of wind and frost, firm as pine and cypress in the heart of the rock (my rendering) [3]. The hung bench is the bench a host keeps for one guest and takes down only for him, so the friend does not come [4].

A pair of figures for friends. 琴瑟之交 is set against 芝蘭之契 line for line, bond against pledge, the two zithers against the two fragrant plants. 芝蘭 is a figure of fine men: 大辞泉 gives 性質・才能・人徳のすぐれた人のたとえ。「芝蘭の友」, a figure for a person excellent in nature, gifts and virtue, as in "a friend of 芝 and orchid", and the 日本国語大辞典's first instance of the word is another poem of the same anthology [21]. The anthology has 金蘭, a friendship of gold and orchid, too, in a poem of Prince Nagaya [22]. Nothing in Umakai's poem is a marriage: it is a man writing to a man, and the strings he tunes at the edge of the clouds answer the qin and se of his fifth line.

The variants. The 1926 print notes at the phrase 異本作友, another text has 友, which would make it 琴瑟之友, and it notes the 群書類従 print's readings at three other places in the poem [3]. That print, of 1893, has 友 as another text's reading beside the phrase, 琴瑟之交(友イ), and it also prints 芳蘭之契 for 芝蘭之契 and 々々 for the repeated 無由, a reading the 1926 notes do not record [23]. A study of the anthology's manuscripts of 2014 finds that the 群書類従 text has readings no other text has, 本文も他本にない独自異文を含んでいる箇所が散見される [24]; 芳蘭 is best taken as one of that print's readings until a manuscript is found to have it.

Read as friendship

1927. The commentary of 釈清潭, in the short passages the National Diet Library displays from it, glosses the two phrases together: 【琴瑟之交】、芝蘭之契、良友を指す。卽ち倭判官なり, 琴瑟之交 and 芝蘭之契 point to a good friend: that is, Yamato the 判官 [4].

1933. The commentary of 沢田総清, in the same kind of passage, sets the other sense aside: 【琴瑟之交】夫婦相和することを「琴瑟和」といふが、玆は朋友の交, of a husband and wife in harmony one says 琴瑟和, but here it is the bond of friends [5].

1937. A collection of sources for the national history, at its page, gives the poem and glosses 琴瑟之交——仲好きこと, being on close terms, and 芝蘭之契——…道を以て交り相好き心友の間柄をいふ, said of bosom friends who keep company through the Way and are fond of one another; of the next two lines it says 以上二句は古人交友の例を引き、作者(藤原宇合)が現在倭判官と東西相離れ居て會談の機を得ざるを歎ずるなり, these two lines cite friendships of the ancients, and the author, Fujiwara no Umakai, laments that he and Yamato the 判官 are now apart, east and west, with no chance to meet and talk [6].

In Chinese

No 琴瑟之交 found. The phrase is not found in Chinese Wikisource, in any text it transcribes, the Wenxuan included, nor in the CBETA canon of Buddhist texts, which has 琴瑟 in more than four hundred documents (both searched in October 2026). The Chinese Text Project would not serve this house's searches, so it is a wall, not a null. 琴瑟之友, the reading the 1926 print reports from another text, stands in Chinese Wikisource only in texts of the Song and later, and in each of its search's passages it is a marriage, the noun built from 關雎's 琴瑟友之. Umakai's pairing of the two phrases has no Chinese model as a pair in the texts searched. The same dictionary of classical and medieval Chinese gives the compound 琴瑟 as metaphorical of conjugal harmony or close friendship [18], so the friendship figure is known to the language, though the entry cites no text for it; the instances found here follow.

Three figures of qin and se for men, in the Wenxuan. The Wenxuan was compiled under the Liang crown prince Zhaoming (501–531), about 530 by one account, and was known in Japan early: its use has been pointed out in the Seventeen-Article Constitution of 604, and under the Nara and Heian courts it was, in one entry's words, 知識人にとって必読の書, required reading for the learned [25]. Three of its passages, as found here, say qin and se of men, and its commentator Li Shan 李善 glosses each from the Book of Songs' line on wife and children.

217, Cao Zhi, of a bond more than a friend's. Cao Zhi 曹植 (192–232) [26], in his elegy for Wang Can 王粲, who died in 217 [27], says 吾與夫子，義貫丹青。好和琴瑟，分過友生, you and I, sir: our faith as unfading as vermilion and blue, our harmony as qin and se, our bond more than friends'; Li Shan glosses the line 毛詩曰：妻子好合，如鼓瑟琴。又曰：矧伊人矣，不求友生, the Songs' wife and children and, from another song, that a man must seek friends [7].

Pan Yue, of 友悌. Pan Yue 潘岳 (247–300) [28], in his elegy for the palace attendant Xiahou, says of him 子之友悌，和如瑟琴, your 友悌 was in tune as se and qin, a line the dictionary of 1925 quotes for brothers and friends in harmony [14]; Li Shan: 毛詩曰：妻子好合，如鼓瑟琴 [8].

Jiang Yan, of a man in another's service. The anthology also keeps the thirty imitations of earlier poets by Jiang Yan 江淹 (444–505) [29], and the imitation of Lu Chen 盧諶, headed 盧中郎感交, Lu, the palace attendant: moved by friendship, is in the voice of a man who left his home in another man's service: 羇旅去舊鄉，感遇喻琴瑟, a wanderer leaving my old home, what I met with (感遇) I liken to qin and se [9]. Li Shan glosses the line with a poem of Lu Chen's and with the Book of Songs: 盧諶贈崔溫詩曰：羇旅及寬政，委質與時遇。毛詩曰：妻子好合，如鼓琴瑟 [9]. At an earlier line Li Shan quotes Lu Chen's poem to Liu Kun 劉琨, which says the two were 申以婚姻, joined further by marriage [9]. John Marney's study of Jiang Yan of 1981 renders the line And appreciate our meeting, like zither and lute, and notes that the union and accord of the zither and lute is common in the Odes, e.g., as a simile for the union with wife and child [30]. So in each of the three places found where the anthology says qin and se of men, its commentator reads the marriage line behind it. Whether Umakai had any of these lines in mind, nothing read says.

Lovers, then marriage

1883, a married pair's feeling. A translation of a French book of law speaks of separated spouses who 往日ノ琴瑟ノ交情ヲ追想シ遂ニ和解スル, remember the warm feeling of their marriage in days gone by and are reconciled at last [31]. This is 琴瑟ノ交情, 琴瑟 for the married pair; it is not the phrase.

1884, a bond of passion. A Japanese translation of a book by Edward King (1848–1896) says of a man bound by passion to the one it addresses, 汝と琴瑟の交深く。鴛鴦の契を籠め, deep in the bond of qin and se with you, pledged as mandarin ducks are pledged, with the ruby きんしつ and まじはり [10]. This is the earliest page read with the phrase as a phrase, and it is said of a bond of passion, set beside the mandarin ducks' pledge, which is a pair's.

1894, a marriage. Kitamura Tōkoku 北村透谷 (1868–1894), the poet and critic, whose given name was 門太郎 [32], writing of Emerson, says 千八百三十年彼はボストン市の良家の女、エレン、ルイサ、タツカーを納れて婦となせり。琴瑟の交り僅に一歳ならずして, in 1830 he took Ellen Louisa Tucker, the daughter of a good family of Boston, as his wife; their bond of qin and se had lasted not a year when… [11]. The phrase is a marriage, stated, on the earliest page read that says so.

1893, in a window. A year before, a monthly for young readers, 博文館's 『少年学術共進会』, in the one passage the National Diet Library's full-text index displays from it, already has the phrase in a blessing on a married pair, between 妹背, husband and wife, and 比翼の鳥 and 連理の枝, the birds that share a wing and the branches grown together: 琴瑟の交り變るなよ, let the bond of qin and se not change [33].

1912 and 1925, the dictionaries keep both. A dictionary of Chinese characters of 1912 enters 琴瑟 as こととおほごとと。夫婦又は兄弟朋友の相和するを琴瑟和ぐといふ, the koto and the large koto; of husband and wife, or of brothers and friends, in harmony one says 琴瑟和ぐ [13]. A dictionary of set phrases of 1925 gives 琴瑟和 two senses, 夫婦相和するをいふ and 兄弟朋友相和するをいふ, husband and wife, and brothers and friends, and quotes for the second the elegies of Pan Yue and Cao Zhi [14]. In these two reference books the friends and brothers stand beside the marriage.

After. The National Diet Library's full-text index, searched oldest first, has the Japanese phrase as a marriage in the passages it displays from then on, and in one article of 1949, of a monk who joined the scholars of the Zhou court, still as a friendship: 王劭、辛德源、陸開明、唐怡等の名士と琴瑟の交りをなし, he was bound as qin and se with men of note, 王劭, 辛德源, 陸開明 and 唐怡 [34]. A book on word origins of 1977 lists 琴瑟の交わり beside 琴瑟相和す and 琴瑟調和 as other ways of saying the same thing [35].

The phrase in English

1886, Hepburn. J. C. Hepburn's dictionary, in its fourth edition of 1888, whose copyright line and preface are of 1886, enters KINSHITSU キンシツ 琴瑟 n. The harp and harpsicord: — no majiwari, intimate friendship, and, above it, KINRAN キンラン 金蘭 Gold and orchis, only used fig.: — no majiwari, a friendship that may be enduring and pleasant [12]. In the printing read, four years after the earliest page read with the phrase as a phrase, the one bilingual dictionary read that enters it gives it as friendship.

Umakai's poem. No English rendering of the poem is known among the books read here; Sato and Watson's anthology of 1981, From the Country of Eight Islands, does not carry it (see Sources not seen).

Today

JMdict gives 琴瑟 as happy marriage and has no entry for the phrase [16]; the Japanese dictionaries read give the marriage alone, and デジタル大辞泉 sets 琴瑟の交わり under it [15]; the brothers and friends of the dictionaries of 1912 and 1925 are not in them.

What is not a source

The phrase is not in the Book of Songs, whose qin and se are wife and children in accord in 常棣 and a lady welcomed as a friend in 關雎, not 琴瑟之交 [9][20]. It is not the 日本国語大辞典's first instance from the Kaifūsō, which is a banquet poem where the qin and se are instruments [15]. And the earliest hit for 琴瑟の交 in the National Diet Library's full-text index, searched oldest first, of 1883, is 琴瑟ノ交情, not the phrase; the index's earlier hits for 琴瑟之交 are printings of Umakai's poem [31].

A reading

What is settled. 琴瑟之交 is in Umakai's poem to a friend, of the years he governed Hitachi, kept in the Kaifūsō of 751 [3][2]; the poem is friend to friend, and its commentaries of 1927 to 1937 read the phrase as friendship [4][5][6]. In the Japanese pages read, in 1884 it is said of a bond of passion and from the 1890s of a marriage [10][11], and the Japanese dictionaries read today give only the marriage [15]. What is not settled is whether the four characters are Umakai's own: no Chinese use was found in the texts searched, and the Chinese Text Project was not reached.

The reading I sign: a friendship, with a marriage standing behind it from the start. Umakai's figure is two strings that answer each other across a distance, and his poem means it: his friend holds a jade in the capital while he tunes his strings at the frontier, and he asks him to stay firm as pine on rock [3]. That is a friendship between men, and it is the phrase's first sense. But the qin and se were a figure of the household before they were his. The Book of Songs has them for wife and children in accord, and for a consort holding a lady dear as a friend [9][20], and where the Wenxuan says them of men, of a bond more than a friend's in Cao Zhi's elegy, of a brother in Pan Yue's, of a man in another's service in Jiang Yan's, its commentator glosses each from the line on wife and children [7][8][9]. The friendship and the marriage were braided in the figure from the start. So the marriage always stood behind the friendship, and Meiji print brought it forward, while two reference books, of 1912 and 1925, still kept brothers and friends beside it [13][14]. By 1933 a commentator on the poem set the marriage sense aside for his reader [5], and the dictionaries now give no other [15]. Read alone today, 琴瑟之交 says a happy marriage. To say what Umakai said, it needs his poem beside it.

Notes

The 1926 print's notes on the poem record another text's 友 for 交 at the phrase, and the 群書類従 print's 列 for 別 and 道 for 逵 in the eighth line and 年 for the last 歲 of the fourteenth; as I read the rhyme, 年 rhymes and 歲 does not [3][23].

The 1937 commentary's note on 李將鄭 names the Tang poet Li Bai and 鄭虔 [6]; Li Bai lived 701–762 [36], so in Umakai's Hitachi years after 719 he was a young man, and the note is unlikely to be right. The 1927 commentary's displayed window breaks off at 李將鄭 followed by the title 左傳, so it seems to take the pair from the 左傳 [4]. A study of parallel couplets in the anthology of 1979 quotes the two lines with the next for their repeated 無由, and prints 李将郭 [37]. Who the pair are is not settled here. 逵 and 猷 are 戴逵 and 王子猷: the 1937 print reads 道 for 逵, and its note takes 道與猷 as the Jin men 戴逵, whose style was 安道, and 王子猷 [6].

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Close as Two Zithers (kinshitsu no majiwari) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
琴瑟之交VB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of Close as Two Zithers (kinshitsu no majiwari) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
琴瑟之交VC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of Close as Two Zithers (kinshitsu no majiwari) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (Eri's Choice)
琴瑟之交VD5JEri's Choice
Japanese Scroll of Close as Two Zithers (kinshitsu no majiwari) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
琴瑟之交VS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

利光三津夫, 「藤原宇合と大和長岡」, 『法学研究』 40(4), 1967, pp. 97–110, its record at CiNii Research, https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/2120307889885890048: by its contents, on Umakai and 大和長岡 in the anthology's prefaces, which would identify Yamato the 判官 as the lawyer 大和長岡; the site that holds it did not answer this house.

土佐朋子, 「藤原宇合「在常陸贈倭判官留在京」詩の論」, 『和漢比較文学』 40, 2008, pp. 42–56, its record at CiNii Research, https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1520009409354199808: a study of this poem; no open copy found.

釈清潭, 『懐風藻新釈』, 1927, and 沢田総清, 『懐風藻註釈』, 1933, National Diet Library (readable only in Japan) [4][5]: known here from short passages; their pages would give each commentary's reading whole.

小島憲之 校注, 『懐風藻 文華秀麗集 本朝文粋』 (日本古典文学大系 69), 1964: the standard annotated edition of the anthology; not on this house's shelf.

Burton Watson, Japanese Literature in Chinese, vol. 1, 1975: may carry poems of the anthology in English; not found in a copy open to this house.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「懐風藻」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 日本大百科全書 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%87%90%E9%A2%A8%E8%97%BB-42858
  2. 「藤原宇合」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 日本大百科全書, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%97%A4%E5%8E%9F%E5%AE%87%E5%90%88-124601
  3. 与謝野寛, 正宗敦夫, 与謝野晶子 編, 『日本古典全集』, the volume 『懐風藻 凌雲集 文華秀麗集 経国集 本朝麗藻』, 日本古典全集刊行会, 1926 (its colophon: 大正十五年五月三日発行), p. 三四, scan 32, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1019711/1/32
  4. 釈清潭, 『懐風藻新釈』, 1927, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1187689
  5. 沢田総清, 『懐風藻註釈』, 1933, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1209710
  6. 国民精神文化研究所 編, 『国史資料集』 第1巻, 1937, pp. 226–227, scan 138, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1155520/1/138
  7. 『文選』 (昭明文選), 卷56, 曹植 「王仲宣誄」, with 李善's commentary, at Chinese Wikisource (a transcription). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%98%AD%E6%98%8E%E6%96%87%E9%81%B8/%E5%8D%B756
  8. 『文選』 (昭明文選), 卷57, 潘岳 「夏侯常侍誄」, with 李善's commentary, at Chinese Wikisource (a transcription). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%98%AD%E6%98%8E%E6%96%87%E9%81%B8/%E5%8D%B757
  9. 『文選』 (昭明文選), 卷31, 江淹 「雜體詩三十首」, 「盧中郎 感交 諶」, with 李善's commentary, at Chinese Wikisource (a transcription). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%98%AD%E6%98%8E%E6%96%87%E9%81%B8/%E5%8D%B731
  10. エドワード・キング (Edward King) 著, 宮崎夢柳 訳, 『憂世の涕涙 一滴千金』, 巻之2, 成文舎, 1884, p. 十五, scan 17, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/896676/1/17
  11. 北村門太郎 (透谷), 『エマルソン』, 民友社, 1894, p. 七, scan 10, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/782255/1/10
  12. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, the edition of 1886, read in the fourth edition, Maruya, Tokyo, 1888, p. 305, s.v. kinshitsu and kinran; read in the library's copy of the book.
  13. 浜野知三郎 編, 『新訳漢和大辞典』, 六合館, 1912, p. 一〇三四, s.v. 琴瑟, scan 524, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1088118/1/524
  14. 池田蘆洲 編, 『故事熟語辞典』, 東京宝文館, 1925, p. 九一三, s.v. 琴瑟和, scan 276, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/969163/1/276
  15. 「琴瑟」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%90%B4%E7%91%9F-481220
  16. JMdict, entries 2436560 (琴瑟) and 2030610 (琴瑟相和), in the local copy of the dictionary used by gokanji.com; no entry for 琴瑟の交わり.
  17. 「金蘭の交わり」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 故事成語を知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%87%91%E8%98%AD%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%A4%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8A-481953
  18. Paul W. Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, revised edition, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2017, p. 369, s.v. 琴 qín; read in the library's copy of the book.
  19. 「琴瑟相和す」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%90%B4%E7%91%9F%E7%9B%B8%E5%92%8C%E3%81%99-481221
  20. 『毛詩正義』, 卷一, 「關雎」, the line 窈窕淑女，琴瑟友之 with the Mao commentary, Zheng Xuan's note and the 正義, at Chinese Wikisource (a transcription). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%AF%9B%E8%A9%A9%E6%AD%A3%E7%BE%A9/%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80
  21. 「芝蘭」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%8A%9D%E8%98%AD-535647
  22. 「金蘭」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典 (sense ②, first instance 懐風藻, 長屋王), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%87%91%E8%98%AD-481944
  23. 塙保己一 編, 『群書類従』 第6輯, 経済雑誌社, 1893, p. 四百四十二, scan 228, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1879737/1/228
  24. 土佐朋子, 「『懐風藻』伝本および本文の諸問題」, 『東京医科歯科大学教養部研究紀要』 44, 2014, pp. 1–16, p. 3, at J-STAGE. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/kyoyobukiyo/44/0/44_KJ00009158219/_article/-char/ja/
  25. 「文選」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%96%87%E9%81%B8-143196
  26. 「曹植」, デジタル大辞泉, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9B%B9%E6%A4%8D-89461
  27. 「王粲」, デジタル大辞泉, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%8B%E7%B2%B2-38676
  28. 「潘岳」, デジタル大辞泉, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%BD%98%E5%B2%B3-117866
  29. 「江淹」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (興膳宏) and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B1%9F%E6%B7%B9-61465
  30. John Marney, Chiang Yen, Twayne, Boston, 1981, as shown in the Internet Archive's full-text search (the book is lent, not open; its page was not seen). https://archive.org/details/chiangyen0000marn
  31. アルフレー・ジウルダン (Alfred Jourdan) 著, 織田小覚, 河村善益 訳, 『仏律原論』, 博聞社, 1883, p. 二百四十三, scan 152, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/785957/1/152
  32. 「北村透谷」, デジタル大辞泉, 日本大百科全書 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%91%E9%80%8F%E8%B0%B7-50967
  33. 『少年学術共進会』 4(8), 博文館, 1893-08, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only at the National Diet Library; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1721168
  34. 仏教史学会 編, 『仏教史学』, 1949-07, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only at the National Diet Library; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2251584
  35. 岩淵悦太郎, 『語源のたのしみ』, 1977, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12448748
  36. 「李白」, デジタル大辞泉, 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ) and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9D%8E%E7%99%BD-149196
  37. 津田潔, 「『懐風藻』に於ける対偶 : 斉梁体との関連について」, 『日本文学』 28(7), 1979, the article's seventh page, at J-STAGE. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/nihonbungaku/28/7/28_KJ00009996881/_article/-char/ja/

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Takase Studios (an address check by script), 2026-10-30, citations — every reference with a web address opened and the quoted words looked for at each, with controls that must fail and did; every address answered as the history states, and the dictionary pages were checked live and found not to enter the phrase as a headword; the items readable only in Japan or at the National Diet Library could be read only in its search windows, and the history says so · two fresh-context readers (Claude), 2026-10-30, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source, claim by claim: round 1 failed on two wrong facts, which were corrected (no longer every dictionary read but the Japanese dictionaries read today give only the marriage; zither and lute named as one translator's rendering); round 2 failed on one, corrected (Emerson's marriage, not his first); the third round passed from both readers with no wrong fact, with wordings corrected in the pass, among them the 1884 page said of a bond of passion rather than of lovers, Hepburn's entry dated by the 1888 printing read, and the 1893 use scoped to a search window

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · October 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 琴瑟之交 (kinshitsu no majiwari)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kinshitsu-no-majiwari.