The Qing Dynasty was the heyday of the development of couplets. Achievement. In my opinion, the Qing Dynasty was also the heyday of the development of couplets. Couplets are known as "poems within poems", so the maturity of poems, words and music provides a good foundation for its development. Therefore, by the Qing Dynasty, it was an inevitable trend for couplets to develop to their heyday.
Judging from the monographs on couplets, the early couplets include "Couplet Series", "Couplet Continuation", "Three Couplets" and "Qiao Dui Lu" by Liang Zhangju of the Qing Dynasty; Gong Chen's "Four Chapters on Couplets" and "Continuation of Qiao Pairs"; Qing Dynasty's Lin Qingquan's "Records of Couplets" and "Continuation of Couplets"; Qing Dynasty's "Four Chapters on Nanting" by Li Boyuan. According to the "Bibliography of Couplets" in Gu Pingdan and Zeng Baoquan's "Appreciation of Couplets", among the monographs on couplets cited before the Qing Dynasty, there were eight kinds before the Qing Dynasty, and as many as thirty-eight kinds in the Qing Dynasty. In the immortal masterpiece of world literature - "A Dream of Red Mansions", in addition to the chapter chapters, there are as many as 27 couplets written in it. There are even more serial couplets in its poems, lyrics and music. The couplets are continuous and constitute the "A Dream of Red Mansions". The skeleton of "Dream of Red Mansions" is like pearls inlaid on jade, shining brightly and creating a magnificent sight. Most of these couplets come from Cao Xueqin's writings. He creates landscapes, gardens, pavilions, door rooms, pictures, characters, and events in a lifelike way. This is perhaps one of the things that cannot be compared with other world literary masterpieces.
The "Li Weng Duiyun" written by Li Yu (1611-1699), a famous opera theorist in the Qing Dynasty, is the world of couplets. It had a huge influence on the creation of classical poetry by later generations. Even Cao Xueqin's poetry seems to be in the same vein as Li Wengyou's writing style in terms of word structure and creative artistic conception. The two famous works "Li Weng Duiyun" and "Dream of Red Mansions" were born in the Qing Dynasty, which can also be said to be an inevitable coincidence in the history of the development of couplets.
Judging from the traditional couplets of the Qing Dynasty, its variety of styles and wide range of uses far exceed those of previous dynasties. For example, among the 188 couplet stories collected in Huang Rongzhang's "Ancient and Modern Couplets", 110 belong to the Qing Dynasty. By the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the art of couplets had greatly improved, and during the Qianlong period the couplets had reached a level of proficiency. Qianlong himself was a lover and producer of couplets. Among the couplets of famous places in Beijing, 179 were published by Qianlong. At that time, couplets on palace gates were everywhere in the Forbidden City.
There are more couplets written by celebrities in the Qing Dynasty than those of previous generations. For example, the "Sixty-year-old Couplet" by Zheng Banqiao, a master of calligraphy and painting; the "Yueyang Tower Couplet" by He Shaoji, a famous couplet artist in the Daoguang period; Sun Beard's long couplet of Daguan Tower is the most prestigious and is known as "the best long couplet in the world"; Zhong Yunfang's Jiangjin Long Couplet The couplet is 1,612 words long, the longest among the famous couplets; the couplet "Reopening the Heaven of Yao and Shun" written by Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Rebellion, after he established his capital in Nanjing, is magnificent and inspiring. Famous couplet masters in the Qing Dynasty include not only literati, scholars, calligraphers and painters, such as Li Yu, Yu Quyuan (i.e. Yu Yue), Zheng Banqiao, Sun Beard, He Shaoji, Yuan Mei, Song Xiang, Ji Xiaolan, Gu Fuchu, Zhong Yunfang, Kang Youwei, etc., but also civil and military generals. Tailiang Zhangju, Lin Zexu, Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong and others. Accounting for more than two-thirds of the famous couplets in the past dynasties, it can be said that there are bright stars and numerous masters.
In short, the Qing Dynasty couplets can be said to be the culmination of the previous generations, from ideological content to artistic form, from quality to quantity, or from appearance, fragrance, rhyme, color to style and temperament. unprecedented prosperity. Compared with the other three major branches of literature in the Qing Dynasty - novels, essays, and dramas, Lianyu's achievements in the Qing Dynasty were equally brilliant. I think "Tang poetry", "Song lyrics", "Yuan opera" and "Ming novels" should be followed by "Qing couplets", which just form the "Five Peaks Mountain" and "One-stop" of Chinese classical poetry from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty formed the development history and golden age of classical couplets in my country, that is, the heyday in the history of ancient couplets. If not, please ask Fang’s family to teach you.
Original issue of "Couplets" Release date: 2008-07-16