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6.5 Kunten (訓点・返り点)

Synopsis

Kunten are the marginal marks that let classical Chinese (漢文) be read in Japanese word order. This section specifies kaeriten (返り点), the reading-order return marks, their okurigana, and the left-side ruby that — composed with these — expresses a saidoku-moji (再読文字, a character read twice). See the final subsection.

Notation

Kaeriten are recognized only in bracketed form — a mark inside a directive:

有［＃二］朋自遠方来［＃一］
未［＃レ］嘗［＃（ハ）］

kaeriten = LBRACK HASH ( ladder-mark / okurigana ) RBRACK
  • ladder-mark — one of the single marks 一 二 三 四 上 中 下 甲 乙 丙 丁 レ or the Xレ compounds 一レ 二レ 三レ 上レ 中レ 下レ (Annex C.5).
  • okurigana — parenthesised kana （…）, a reading aid.

A bare reading-mark glyph written inline in running text (有レ朋) is not recognized — a processor cannot tell a genuine 返り点 from an ordinary 一/上/レ in prose, which is exactly why the bracketed form exists.

Parameters

  • mark — the literal mark text; classified into a family and rank for the pairing check (below). The ladder families and bases are: numeric 一<二<三<四 (base 一), jouge 上<中<下 (base 上), kō-otsu 甲<乙<丙<丁 (base 甲). レ is standalone; okurigana never ladders.

Semantics

  • Each recognized mark yields a kaeriten node carrying the mark text.
  • Reference rendering (§8) is <sup class="aozora-kaeriten">mark</sup>.
  • Serialization reconstructs ［＃mark］ byte-exact (§7.6).

Pairing (document-wide base presence)

A return mark of rank ≥ 2 implies the existence of its family base. A processor checks this document-wide and base-only: if a mark of rank ≥ 2 (二/三/四, 中/下, 乙/丙/丁) appears but its family base (一/上/甲) is absent from the entire document, it raises bracketed-kaeriten-no-pair (error).

The scope is deliberately the whole document and the test deliberately base-only — not per-clause and not a strict contiguous ladder. This is forced by the corpus: real kanbun writes 二 before 一 (reading order), return-mark groups routinely span 、/。 and line boundaries, and 上下点 legitimately uses just 上…下 (skipping 中). A narrower scope or stricter ladder flags valid kanbun. This decision is recorded in docs/adr/0001-kaeriten-pairing-rule.md.

Error conditions

  • bracketed-kaeriten-no-pair — see Pairing above.
  • kaeriten-outside-kanbun (warning) — a conservative heuristic: when a document contains exactly one kaeriten and its surroundings read as ordinary kana prose, the lone mark is likely a stray annotation, not a return mark. A document with a cluster of kaeriten (real 漢文) is never flagged.

Left-side ruby and saidoku-moji (再読文字)

Saidoku-moji (再読文字) — a kanbun character read twice with different glosses (e.g. 未, 将, 当) — has no dedicated notation. It is written as a composition of constructs already defined: a left-side ruby for the second reading, plus okurigana and a return mark. For example, 未 read 「いまだ…ず」 is 未［＃「未」の左に「ザル」のルビ］［＃（ダ）］［＃レ］.

The left-side ruby is the one piece §6 does not otherwise cover. A forward-reference directive attaches a reading to the left of the preceding run (vs §6.1 ruby, which is on the right):

未［＃「未」の左に「ザル」のルビ］

left-ruby = LBRACK HASH LQUOTE target RQUOTE %s"の左に" LQUOTE reading RQUOTE %s"のルビ" RBRACK
  • target — the preceding run the reading attaches to (resolved by §7.5).
  • reading — the left-side reading text.

A left-side ruby yields a ruby node with a left side. Reference rendering (§8): <ruby>X<rp>(</rp><rt class="aozora-ruby-left">Y</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>. Serialization reconstructs X［＃「X」の左に「Y」のルビ］ byte-exact (§7.6). The right-side variant (の右に…のルビ) is deferred (§10.5); the left-side annotation form (の左に…の注記) is covered next.

Side annotation (注記)

A side annotation (注記) attaches an editorial note — not a phonetic reading — to the left of the preceding run. It shares the forward-reference shape of the left-side ruby but ends in の注記, so a processor keeps it distinct: a side-note node, never ruby.

未来［＃「未来」の左に「みらい」の注記］

side-note = LBRACK HASH LQUOTE target RQUOTE %s"の左に" LQUOTE note RQUOTE %s"の注記" RBRACK
  • target — the preceding run the note attaches to (resolved by §7.5).
  • note — the left-side annotation text.

A side annotation yields a side-note node. Reference rendering (§8) places the note like a left-side ruby but marks it a note: <ruby>X<rp>(</rp><rt class="aozora-sidenote">Y</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>. Serialization reconstructs X［＃「X」の左に「Y」の注記］ byte-exact (§7.6). The right-side annotation form (の右に…の注記) is deferred (§10.5).

Marginal annotation (傍記)

A marginal annotation (傍記) attaches a redaction marker — 典型的に × — beside the preceding run. It records a 底本's 伏字 (a masked word) in proletarian-literature restoration: the original word is set as X and the marker Y notes that the source censored it. It shares the side-note node with the 注記 form, but uses a bare に connector and ends in の傍記, so a processor keeps it distinct and round-trips it to its own keyword.

革命［＃「革命」に「×」の傍記］

marginal-note = LBRACK HASH LQUOTE target RQUOTE %s"に" LQUOTE note RQUOTE %s"の傍記" RBRACK
  • target — the preceding run the marker attaches to (resolved by §7.5).
  • note — the marker text (典型的に ×).

A marginal annotation yields a side-note node, rendered like the 注記 form: <ruby>X<rp>(</rp><rt class="aozora-sidenote">Y</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>. Serialization reconstructs X［＃「X」に「Y」の傍記］ byte-exact (§7.6) — the bare に, not の左に. This is a corpus-attested tolerant extension (102 occurrences, one shape); 注記 is the canonical side annotation. Vector: boki.

Conformance vectors

bracketed-kaeriten-no-pair, kaeriten-outside-kanbun, left_ruby, side_note_left, boki, and the kaeriten recognition cases under conformance/vectors/.