WHOLE CHARACTER
琴qín
the qin, the ancient Chinese zither first strung with five strings and later seven, known as the seven-stringed qin or guqin (古琴, 七弦琴, 琴瑟, 琴师, 琴瑟不调); a general name for certain musical instruments (钢琴, 口琴, 胡琴, 月琴, 管风琴)
琴 is one of the oldest instruments in China: a quiet zither whose strings scholars played while composing poetry. The instrument is commonly known as 古琴 (gǔqín), and it leads the four arts in the saying 琴棋书画. The dictionary's small-seal account pictures the instrument itself — the top piece draws the strings and the posts that hold them, and the bottom piece draws the body — and the word later grew into a tag for many instruments: the piano is 钢琴, the harmonica is 口琴, the violin is 提琴.
The dictionary's small-seal account describes the whole character as a picture of the instrument: the top piece stands for the strings and the posts that hold them, and the bottom piece stands for the body of the instrument. The same old account says the bottom piece 今 was taken for its sound; in today's speech 今 no longer sounds exactly like 琴, so that sound link is the source's historical note, not a modern match.
THE TOP PIECE 玨: THE STRINGS AND THE POSTS THAT HOLD THEM
玨jué
two pieces of jade joined together; a pair of jade
An old headword in its own right: jué, two pieces of jade joined as one (ZDIC 玨 entry). Read on its own it names a pair of jades; where the shape appears as one piece inside a larger character, that character's own page explains the role the piece plays there.
In 琴: the top piece 玨: the strings and the posts that hold them The dictionary's own analysis names the top piece 玨 and says it pictures the strings and the posts that hold them. In the modern glyph the top shows as a pair of jade-like shapes, and the dictionary treats that whole pair as the one piece. 玨 has its own headword sense — jué, two jade pieces joined — and the card keeps that independent meaning separate from this historical shape role.
THE BOTTOM PIECE 今: THE BODY OF THE INSTRUMENT
今jīn
now; the present; modern times, in contrast with the past
A common character on its own (ZDIC 今 entry: 现在, also 现代;当代, the opposite of old). It also serves as a historical sound piece in some characters: the old account took it for its sound, and that sound link is recorded on each of those characters' own pages rather than here.
In 琴: the bottom piece 今: the body of the instrument The dictionary says the lower part pictures the body of the instrument. The same old account says the piece 今 was also taken for its sound, and in today's speech it no longer sounds exactly like 琴, so that sound link is the source's historical note. 今 is a common character on its own — now, the present — and still shows whole on the bottom.