"四六" refers to parallel prose. The whole text of parallel prose is mainly composed of two sentences, focusing on the rhythm of antiphonal sounds. Most of the sentences are composed of four or six characters alternately, so it is also called "four or six". Another: "Four Liu" in Hakka means that a person is very unruly, and also means a scoundrel or a fool.
Parallel sentences, that is, parallel couplets, that is, antithetical sentences. Two horses riding side by side are called parallel horses, and two people riding side by side are called couples, which means they are facing each other. In ancient times, the guards in the palace lined up as moon guards (ceremonial guards). Two pairs of honor guards faced each other, so parallel couples were also called duels.
Use couplets as the main components to form upper and lower couplets with the same number of words. Articles written in this form of four or six sentences were called "four or six" in the late Tang Dynasty, followed by the Song and Ming Dynasties, and were renamed parallel style in the Qing Dynasty. Train Tongmeng in parallel sentences to lay the foundation for composition and poetry.
Extended information:
Parallel prose is mainly composed of two sentences, paying attention to the antiphonal rhythm, and mostly consists of four or six characters alternately to form sentences, so it is also called siliuwen. Forty-six essays are often used in writing table chapters and memorials. Lu Ji, a writer in the Western Jin Dynasty, wrote "Fifty Lien Zhu", each poem is a short rhyme composed of forty-six parallel sentences, which is the origin of the earlier forty-six parallel prose short chapters that can be seen today.
Afterwards, 46 parallel sentences were widely used in parallel prose in the Southern Dynasties. Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long·Zhang Ju" said: "If the sentence pen is not constant, but the number of characters, the four characters are dense but not hurried, and the six characters are grid instead of slow. Or change it to three or five to cover the power and restraint of the opportunity. Ye." Siliu parallel sentences have been used as the basic sentence pattern of parallel prose, but there is no name for Siliu prose in the Six Dynasties.
The Southern and Northern Dynasties were the heyday of parallel prose. The whole article is mainly composed of double sentences (Haiju and even sentences), and pays attention to the neatness of the antithesis and the sonorous rhythm. From the Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties, the debate between "Wen" and "Bi" emerged in Chinese prose. According to Yan Yanzhi's point of view quoted in Liu Xie's "Literature Mind Diaolong: A Summary": The pen is the body, and the words are the text; classics are words, not pens, and biographies are pens, not words. He thinks: "It is often said today that there is writing and writing. It is thought that those who have no rhyme are writing, and those who have rhyme are writing." It can be seen that the debate on writing that occurred in the Song and Qi Dynasties focused on whether there was rhyme or not.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Four Six