Couplets are a unique literary form with a long history in China. It originally originated from peach characters. Taofu is two red wooden boards hung on doorframes in ancient China, with figures or handwriting painted or engraved on them to ward off evil spirits. Fu Tao appeared before the Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, there was a custom of hanging or carving "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" Fu Tao on the left and right of the gate every Spring Festival.
So why can mahogany avoid disasters and exorcise evil spirits? According to China's ancient myth "Shan Hai Jing", there was a mountain in ancient times, which was called the ghost domain. At the gate of this ghost town, there is a big peach tree whose crown can cover 3,000 miles. There is a golden rooster in the tree, responsible for the morning light every day. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, ghosts wandering at night must return to the ghost domain. On both sides of the gate of the ghost domain stood two gods, their names were Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If ghosts do something abnormal at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately catch them, tie them up with ropes and send them to the tiger. So all ghosts are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. In this way, the folk custom of using Shen Tu, Lei Yu and Taomu to exorcise evil spirits and avoid disasters spread. They carved the shapes of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on mahogany, or carved their names on mahogany boards and hung them at the door to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. This kind of red board is called "peach symbol".
How did the Spring Festival couplets come into being?
It is said that Meng Chang, the monarch of Shu after the Five Dynasties, was a monarch who liked to be unconventional. On New Year's Eve at the end of 964 A.D., he had a whim, and asked a bachelor named Xin Yin Xun to write two sentences of peach characters on the mahogany board and hang them on the door frame of his living room. These two sentences are "Qing Yu in New Year, Changchun in Jiawu". Enjoy the legacy of the previous generation in the new year. Festivals show that spring is always there. Since then, the form and content of Fu Tao have changed, which not only shows that parallel couplets have been used to replace Shen Tu and Lei Yu, but also expands the connotation of Fu Tao, which can not only ward off evil spirits, but also increase the content of prayers and wishes. This became the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China.
In the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on mahogany boards. Wang Anshi wrote in his poem "January Day": "The sound of firecrackers is one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su. Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old ones, which reflects the grand occasion of hanging peach symbols on New Year's Eve every year. At the same time, with the appearance of the door god and the writing of the peach symbol symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness on red paper, the mission of exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters shouldered by the previous peach symbol has gradually shifted to the door god, and the content of the peach symbol has also evolved into expressing people's good wishes for good luck and good harvest in the coming year.
The word "Spring Festival couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became emperor, he liked ostentation and extravagance, and he also liked the peach symbols posted by large families every New Year's Eve, so he wanted to promote these peach symbols. One year before New Year's Eve, he issued an imperial edict requiring every household in Jinling to put couplets written in red paper on their doorframes to welcome the Spring Festival. On the morning of New Year's Day, Zhu Yuanzhang made a tour incognito and went door to door to check the Spring Festival couplets. Whenever he sees a well-written Spring Festival couplets, he is very happy and full of praise. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he saw that a family had not posted Spring Festival couplets. He asked why. The attendants replied: this is a master who is engaged in killing pigs and cutting pigs. He was so busy during the Chinese New Year that he never had time to ask someone to write. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for this family: "Split the road between life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife." After writing, I will continue to patrol. After a while, when Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace from his tour, he passed by here again. When he saw that the butcher's house had not been pasted with his Spring Festival couplets, he asked what was going on. The host respectfully replied, "This pair of Spring Festival couplets was written by the emperor himself. We hang high in nave and burn incense every day. " Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy, so he ordered his attendants to give the family thirty taels of silver. It can be seen that the naming and promotion of "Spring Festival couplets" was promoted in every household through Zhu Yuanzhang's administrative orders and imperial edicts.
With the passage of time, Spring Festival couplets have become a broad concept, and many affiliated categories have appeared. According to the different places of use, it can be divided into several types, such as frame-to-frame type, anti-series type, spring strip type and bucket type. The "frame pair" is attached to the left and right doorframes, which is our common Spring Festival couplets; "anti-string" is posted on the crossbar of the door, which is the anti-string of Spring Festival couplets; Depending on the content, the "spring note" is a single word posted in the corresponding place, such as "Looking up to see happiness", "Going in and out safely" and "Congratulations on getting rich" posted in the courtyard during the New Year; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, which is often attached to furniture, single doors or screen walls. The word "fu" that everyone likes to post upside down during the Spring Festival belongs to this kind of "fighting for money".
China people's Spring Festival couplets complex
If we count from the Qin and Han Dynasties, the history of posting Spring Festival couplets in China has been two thousand years, then why do people in China always have a soft spot for posting Spring Festival couplets? This involves the traditional thinking concept of China people. As the saying goes, "A year's plan lies in spring." Our people have been optimistic since ancient times, that is, they are full of hope for the future and pray that the future will bring them good luck. No matter what you are happy, proud or unhappy about in the past year, you always hope that next year will be better, so when the Spring Festival is coming, posting Spring Festival couplets is just the best choice to achieve this goal. With the help of Spring Festival couplets, they express their joy and happiness for the coming year, or express their expectations and high hopes for the new year. In their traditional concept, a good start in a year is the most pleasant and auspicious thing. Therefore, every Spring Festival, they express their good feelings and good expectations for the future by posting Spring Festival couplets. At the same time, China people attach great importance to festive, auspicious and lively activities, such as eating well, drinking well, wearing new clothes, setting off firecrackers, visiting relatives and friends, etc. These are all reflections of festive psychology, and posting Spring Festival couplets is just an external means to strengthen people's festive psychology and render the atmosphere.
Requirements for writing Spring Festival couplets
Spring Festival couplets are a new style derived from China's ancient parallel prose and a traditional literary form of China's poetry. It is different from ancient parallel prose and poetry, and it is a unique independent style. Although antithetical couplets in regular poems or parallel prose are often wonderful couplets, they can only be called couplets if they exist independently of regular poems or parallel prose. Its most striking feature is that it is paired in form, and the two couplets are "pairs" with each other, and the contents take care of each other and are closely related. The upper and lower couplets must be integrated in structure and concise in language. The specific requirements are as follows:
First of all, the number of words in the upper and lower couplet should be equal.
For example: "The Spring Festival is prosperous every year, and the good year is safe and safe." This pair of Spring Festival couplets has seven characters each, and the number of words in the upper and lower couplets is equal, which is the most basic requirement of Spring Festival couplets. But there are other phenomena. 19 16 after the death of Yuan Shikai, the people all over the country rushed to tell each other, rejoicing and dancing. A scholar in Sichuan claimed to go to Beijing to send Yuan Shikai a couplet. Hearing this, the villagers were both surprised and puzzled. They opened the couplets he wrote and read them:
Yuan Shikai is eternal.
Long live the people of China
People can't help laughing after reading it. The literati deliberately asked, "What are you laughing at?" An outspoken young man said, "How can the word' Yuan Shikai' in the first part of the League be compared with the word' China people' in the second part?" The scholar laughed and said, "Yes, Yuan Shikai is sorry for the people of China!" Although this story is about "elegiac couplet", and "elegiac couplet" also belongs to a kind of couplets, which shows that no matter whether Spring Festival couplets or other couplets, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be equal. If not, it can only be a very individual choice.
Second, the upper and lower conjunctions should be the same and the parts of speech should be the same.
That is to say, the phrases that make up the upper couplet are several words respectively, and the corresponding phrases of the lower couplet must also be several words respectively. The part of speech of upper and lower conjunctions indicates the category nature of words, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives. , should be arranged equally, both the same and relative. As just listed, "the Spring Festival is rich every year, good years and peace, and step by step." Each couplet consists of three phrases, namely: Spring Festival-Prosperity-Happy Year, Happy Year-Peace-Better Life. The upper and lower conjunctions are the same. "Xin" and "Jia" in this pair of Spring Festival couplets are adjectives. Spring, age, wealth and peace are all nouns. Niannian and Bubu are adverbs, and Hao and Gao are verbs. This requirement is mainly to better express the ideological content in symmetrical artistic language.
Third, the upper and lower levels should be harmonious.
In the expression of couplets, we should pay attention to the relative melody, that is, the tone is even and flat. This is mainly for the sake of harmonious phonology, scattered ups and downs, and pleasing to the ear. According to legend, Ji Xiaolan once went south to Hangzhou, and a friend gave a banquet to welcome him. During the dinner, the host and guests answered each other. Ji Xiaolan is quick-witted, and his friends convince him that he is an orphan in the north. Xiaolan disapprovingly said: "The Great Wall is full of talents from the north; Where did the man's words start? " My friend said, "I went to the north a few years ago and brought a pair of couplets, but no one can match me." Xiaolan asked with a grain of salt: "Dude, what did you say that made the other party unable to answer?" His friend read the first part fluently:
The Petronas Towers are indistinct, with seven floors in all directions.
Ji Xiaolan laughed and said, "It is because they disdain to answer such a simple sentence that they can't get it right." The friend asked inexplicably, "So, how should the bottom line be right?" Ji Xiaolan blurted out:
Shake hands, five fingers are three long and two short.
Hearing this, this friend not only found the bottom line, but also admired Ji Xiaolan's extraordinary intelligence. This pair of "Twin Towers" is vague, with seven floors in all directions; The couplets with one hand swaying and five fingers three long and two short have achieved the artistic effect of harmonious phonology, scattered ups and downs and pleasing to the ear.
Fourth, avoid crossing your hands.
The so-called "crossing hands" is semantic repetition and a waste of pen and ink. For example, the Spring Festival couplets commonly used by businessmen in the old days had a pair of words: "Business is booming all over the world, and financial resources are flourishing in the Three Rivers". This pair of Spring Festival couplets is even and neat, and it is in harmony with the atmosphere of "Congratulations on getting rich" in firecrackers, which is very popular in the business world. However, further study will reveal that "connecting the four seas" and "reaching the three rivers" have the same meaning and semantic repetition, so the term of couplets is called "fighting". There are only fourteen words in the seven-character couplet, of which six words express the contents of three words, which leads to semantic repetition. Couplets are the most concise style in the article, and it is absolutely not allowed to waste pen and ink. In order to provide more information with fewer words, it is necessary to avoid saying the same meaning in two conjunctions. For example, in the Spring Festival couplets, using "Zhen Gan Kun" to "shock the world" and using "Fa Xiang Guang" to "Teng Rui Qi" are also semantic repetitions, both of which belong to the problem of crossing hands.
Fifth, choose the antithesis of couplets.
Cross dressing, also known as cross dressing, cross dressing and cross linking. Except for elegiac couplets and birthday couplets, most of them should be used. Cross-linking is closely related to the content of couplets. A good horizontal shawl can play a icing on the cake. In other words, the cross is the sublimation of the content of couplets, the theme of couplets, and the finishing touch. In writing skills, horizontal style can be divided into three forms:
First of all, the couplets are freehand brushwork, and the titles are "Celebrating the Spring Festival" and "Happy New Year". , and the purpose of posting couplets is to directly call the roll;
Second, couplets are freehand brushwork, and banners are the crowning touch. For example, the cross of "Prosperity and Prosperity in the New Year, Better Life in the New Year" is "Ji Gao Xingzhao", which reveals that the key to realizing the content of couplets is "Ji Gao Xingzhao", which is the crowning touch; Third, couplets complement each other, such as "reducing the burden and loving the people, the mighty east wind often sends warmth;" The horizontal comment of "Helping the poor and helping the needy, always cherishing the spring rain" is "bright future", which complements the couplets, not only expresses the people's incomparable gratitude to the CPC Central Committee for "always giving warmth" and "always failing to meet talents", but also praises the great future and brilliance of the party. Cross dressing is mostly four words. In the past, cross-dressing was written horizontally from right to left. Now it is often written from left to right, and writing from right to left is a formal writing method. The horizontal shawl should be stuck in the middle of the lintel, and its font should be consistent with the style of the upper and lower couplet, echoing up and down.
How to choose Spring Festival couplets?
Spring Festival couplets have a wide range of contents, and almost every household sticks them during the Spring Festival. Not only that, even some restaurants, hair salons, hotels, grocery stores and other businesses and enterprises have posted Spring Festival couplets. This involves how to choose Spring Festival couplets.
First of all, Spring Festival couplets should highlight healthy aesthetic concepts and aesthetic pursuits.
Whether residents or units paste Spring Festival couplets, they should reflect a healthy aesthetic taste and pursuit. Some of this aesthetic pursuit focuses on the prosperity of the motherland. For example, "A hundred flowers blossom in the spring, and the warm sun shines on all things in China", "Good times and good scenery are full of good people and good deeds, and new songs are made every day in the new society and new atmosphere". This kind of Spring Festival couplets summarizes the prosperity of the motherland, eulogizes the new look of the new era, and reveals the praise of the creators of Spring Festival couplets for the ever-changing and beautiful life of the motherland. Some Spring Festival couplets express their beautiful pursuit and yearning for the future, such as: "Two years old one night, two years old one night." "Tianzeng Life Insurance, Chunman Skill." This kind of family Spring Festival couplets is an expression of blessings and wishes for the coming year. I hope everything will be smooth and lucky in the new year.
Secondly, it is best to post Spring Festival couplets to show your personality.
Since posting Spring Festival couplets is to entrust some kind of wishes and blessings, different people, different industries and different identities will have different wishes and blessings from others, so posting Spring Festival couplets should conform to their own characteristics. For example, "Spring is good in Miao Zhuang; People are rich in new rice. " This is the Spring Festival couplets reflecting farmers' wishes and blessings for the New Year. "The department store is full of beautiful things, and the cabinets are full of goods in spring, summer, autumn and winter; Louxing, the east, west, north and south are full. " This is the Spring Festival couplets to promote business prosperity. "A piece of chalk, drizzling, peaches and plums all over the world; Three-foot platform, swaying spring breeze caressing the beam. This is the Spring Festival couplets posted by teachers' families. This kind of Spring Festival couplets, which embodies their own characteristics, shows their unparalleled love and loyal professionalism. Of course, families and units can post Spring Festival couplets that praise the prosperity of the country, express their love for the motherland and socialism, and enthusiastically eulogize the future of the country and society. There is no doubt about it. When we say to show individuality, we mainly emphasize not to post Spring Festival couplets in series. In other words, as a worker's family, if a pair of "struggling to raise pigs, three people will live a sweet life; Farming sweats, and fruit comes after autumn, which makes people laugh.
Third, post Spring Festival couplets.
Sticking Spring Festival couplets should conform to the traditional rules, and the Spring Festival couplets should be pasted vertically. The upper part should be attached to the right hand side (the left side of the door) and the lower part should be attached to the left hand side (the right side of the door). The upper part and the lower part cannot be posted reversely. For example, "Spring blossoms, the land of China shines brightly" cannot be labeled as "the land of China shines brightly, the land of China shines brightly". From the content, there is a causal relationship between the upper part and the lower part, because "spring blossoms" make everything in China shine in warm days. If you post it backwards, it will reverse the causal relationship and make people feel awkward to read. From the perspective of plain lines, we can judge the upper and lower couplets from the plain lines of the upper and lower sentences of Spring Festival couplets. The ending word "Yan" of this pair of Spring Festival couplets is four tones, that is, flat tones. The suffix "Hui" in the bottom couplet is a sound, that is, a squeak. Generally speaking, if the suffix is three or four tones, it is the upper part, and if the suffix is one or two tones, it is the lower part. However, some couplets have flat endings and low endings. Don't think that all endings are superior endings. In this case, we should judge the upper and lower couplets from the contents of Spring Festival couplets. This requires us to read the couplets carefully when posting and really understand the contents of the couplets.
In addition, the size of Spring Festival couplets should be coordinated with their own portals. It is best to stick/kloc-0.5 to 20 cm wide Spring Festival couplets at the door of residents' homes, and it is best for merchants to stick 20 to 30 cm wide Spring Festival couplets according to the width of the door, which is harmonious and generous. As for the gates of some tall buildings, if the Spring Festival couplets are posted, the width of the Spring Festival couplets should not exceed 40 cm.