Couplet culture fills the county
Zhouqu in October has a mild climate and pleasant scenery. This is a small town located in the mountains of southern Gansu, with the Bailong River passing through the city. It is known as the "Tibetan hometown of Jiangnan" and "the best Yangzhou". Entering the center of the county town, the reporter's eyes are greeted by a patchwork of buildings.
"The morally popular Zhouqu has ushered in a new realm of civilization and performed in Tibetan villages, singing a good voice." This is a wooden couplet hanging at the entrance of the Fangxin Liang Store in Zhouqu County. The reporter saw that in the county town, shops, restaurants, residential courtyards and other buildings have formed the custom of hanging and posting couplets in every household.
“Hanging couplets is festive and has a cultural atmosphere.” A local resident told reporters that Zhouqu is a small county with a small population, but every family loves the couplet culture. Every year during the Spring Festival, everyone People get together to create and write couplets, and then every household rushes to post them to welcome the New Year.
In Zhouqu, in order to promote and inherit the couplet culture, in 2015, the county government prepared to build China's first couplet cultural street corridor in the center of the county. Whenever night falls and the lanterns are turned on, the Couplet Cultural Street Corridor releases the profound connotation of traditional Chinese culture in a unique form of text expression against the backdrop of the lights.
"Poetry couplet, Qianqiu Yue, Five Continents celebrate the Oriental Dream, the lanterns reflect thousands of families, and the whole world celebrates the Chinese Spring." While a foreign tourist stopped to recite couplets, his fellow travelers also took photos in the night view of the Couplet Cultural Corridor.
A tourist from Baoji City, Shaanxi Province said: "In Zhouqu, you can not only see the beautiful natural landscape, but also appreciate the rich couplet works. It is so rewarding."
During the interview, not only did the reporter feel the poetic fragrance of the couplet culture, but even the local residents also loved the couplet culture. Residents living near the couplet cultural corridor said that every time night falls, the entire West Street is ablaze, and people in the county will take to the streets to watch the lanterns and appreciate the couplets. "The alley is brightly lit, and the poems and couplets convey the context; the streets are classical, and the elegant scholars and Confucian merchants present the landscape." Men, women, old and young walk in the world of illuminated couplets, making the nights in the "Tibetan hometown of Jiangnan" more charming and thought-provoking.
The culture of couplets is passed down from generation to generation
Couplets are an excellent cultural heritage of our country. They are dual sentences written on paper, cloth or carved on wood, bamboo, or pillars. The couplets are neatly contrasted and harmonious, and are a unique art form of the Chinese language with one word and one sound.
The reason why the cultural heritage of couplets can be passed down from generation to generation in Zhouqu is that there are many lovers of couplet culture as inheritors who carry it forward.
Shang Pili is the inheritor of couplet culture in Zhouqu County. Walking into his home, you can see the calligraphy hanging in the middle hall and the upper room, and you can feel that this is a cultural family.
Shang Pili, 68, was a teacher at Zhouqu No. 1 Middle School before his retirement. According to him, his father Shang Chongwen is a Chinese medicine doctor who is proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics. He not only writes couplets, but also creates couplets. Influenced by his father since childhood, he has developed a strong interest in the couplet culture.
“Under the guidance of my father and the older generation of inheritors, I tried to create couplets when I was a child. After I started working in 1967, I also had the opportunity to communicate with my colleagues. Now, I have created some couplets that reflect the real life of the local area. couplets," Shang Pili said.
According to reports, the couplets created by Shang Pili have been selected into publications such as "Collection of Chinese Couplets" and "Thirty Years of Longlian Couplets". Nowadays, in addition to creating, Shang Pili also continues to guide young couplet lovers to learn to create.
In Zhouqu, in addition to inheritors like Shang Pili carrying forward the couplet culture, Zhouqu No. 1 Middle School has also incorporated the couplet culture into normal teaching.
Yang Yanyu, vice principal of Zhouqu No. 1 Middle School, told reporters: "In September 2014, the school opened a couplet lecture and created a couplet cultural education base. A couplet class is held every two weeks, with Chinese teachers Lecturer, in the past two years, the school has also held a couplet competition between teachers and students, and the winning works are hung in the corridor of the teaching building. "
Yang Xiaoli, a senior class 15 student, is a very quiet girl. , in the eyes of her classmates, her literary talent is quite good. In the couplet competition, her work "The sunset on the Cuifeng reflects the sunset on the Qingyu Tuoling Ridge into the painting screen" won the first prize. "The first time I came into contact with the couplet culture was during the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival when I was a child. At that time, every house would post couplets. When I was in middle school, I tried to learn to create couplets based on the classical Chinese I had learned." Yang Xiaoli said that she wanted to create couplets in her hometown. Become a Chinese teacher and pass on the couplet culture.
The "Chinese Couplet Culture County" is well-deserved
According to Li Baicheng, chairman of Zhouqu County Federation of Literary and Art Circles: "It is said that couplets originated from Meng Chang, the lord of Shu after the Five Dynasties, and Zhouqu's Couplet culture also has a history of hundreds of years, and the creation of couplets has endured for a long time. The "Lantern Festival Songpeng Couplet Lantern Festival" has been held since the Ming Dynasty, and it has been passed down from generation to generation. Today, the "Songpeng Couplet Lantern Festival" is a collection of pine branches and colorful lanterns. The comprehensive folk art form that integrates production, couplet creation, and calligraphy inscription is not only unique to Gansu, but also rare in the country. Even the ancients once lamented: 'Although it is a border fortress in the west, it is better than the lanterns in the city of Yangzhou.'"
There are many folk opinions about the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival in Zhouqu. It is said that in ancient times, a county magistrate came from Yangzhou. The New Year was about to come to the small town. His wife missed her hometown very much and was depressed all day long, so the county magistrate The order mobilized the wealthy families on the street to imitate the Chinese New Year scene in their hometown. They set up pine sheds on the street, hung up pairs of lanterns, and personally wrote the banners "Fu Er Yangzhou" and "Half pine shed and half frame. A bright moon and a lamp. "The bright moon reflects the sky and the lights of thousands of houses illuminate the world. The lanterns gather in the city and bring peace to the moon." After reading the couplets, the lady beamed with joy. Since then, the small town has held a lantern festival every two or three years, and "every family walks on the bridge to appreciate the paintings, and everyone watches the lanterns and recites poems" has been passed down to this day.
Li Baicheng said: "Couplets are a literary genre and cultural phenomenon that are both refined and popular. People in Zhouqu have always had the tradition of writing couplets while enjoying lanterns. In the past, every few years, couplets were written in Zhouqu County A Lantern Festival Couplet Lantern Festival will be held, attracting tourists from hundreds of miles away."
In June 2016, at the expert review meeting for the Zhouqu "Songpeng Couplet Lantern Festival" application for national intangible cultural heritage projects. Wang Chuanming, consultant to the Couplet Society of Gansu Province and professor at Lanzhou University, said: "What I didn't expect was that Zhouqu, hidden deep in the Tibetan countryside, would have such a large-scale couplet lantern festival. I took a closer look and found that there were many lantern couplets and seals. , the writing is all exquisite, and it can be called a masterpiece."
According to reports, in 2014, the book "Ancient and Modern Couplets - Collection of Chinese Couplets·Gansu Zhouqu Volume" was published, which contains 4,550 ancient and modern Zhouqu couplets. . At the same time, the works of nearly ten people including Zhouqu cultural figures Han Jixiang, Yang Junshi, Zhifu, etc. have also been selected into a number of national couplet books such as "Contemporary Couplet Family View" edited by the Chinese Couplet Society. At the beginning of 2015, the Gansu Province Couplet Association named Zhouqu No. 1 Middle School, Fengdie Middle School, Chengguan No. 1 Primary School, and Chengguan No. 2 Primary School as the Couplet Couplet Education Base of Gansu Province. In June 2015, Zhouqu County was named "Chinese Couplet Cultural County" by the Chinese Couplet Society, becoming the first county in Gansu Province to receive this honor.
The Zhouqu couplet culture, a cultural wonder that grows in the "Tibetan hometown of Jiangnan", will bloom more vividly and become more dazzling.