韋い編へん

noun

leather cord; leather binding

Refers to a cord made of leather, historically used for binding bamboo or wooden slips into books in ancient China. The term is literary and appears mainly in classical contexts or fixed expressions like 韋編三絶.

• 「韋い編へん三さん絶ぜつ」という故こ事じ成せい語ごは、孔こう子しが易えき経きょうを繰くり返かえし読よんで綴とじ紐ひもが三さん度ど切きれたことに由ゆ来らいする。

  The idiom 韋編三絶 comes from the story that Confucius read the I Ching so many times that the leather binding cords broke three times.