1, the mythical peach tree
On Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea, there is a big peach tree winding for 3,000 miles, and there is a ghost gate.
The branches of the big peach tree extend all the way to the death gate in the northeast, where all the ghosts and gods in the cave go in and out. Shen Tu and Lei Yu, who specialize in evil spirits, often study and monitor these ghosts under this peach tree. When they saw evil spirits harming people, they tied them with straw ropes and threw them into the mountains to feed the tigers.
With this legend, coupled with the ancient superstition that mahogany is a kind of fairy wood with strong smell, it can suppress evil spirits and subdue all ghosts. Therefore, every New Year, in order to have a stable start, people hang two red boards at the door to ward off evil spirits. Later, people painted portraits of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on mahogany boards or wrote down their names and hung them on both sides of the gate. These are called "Fu Tao".
Spring Festival couplets originated in Fu Tao. Later, Fu Tao's content was gradually replaced by two antithetical auspicious poems, and a form called couplets appeared, which was about the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The emergence of Spring Festival couplets is not unrelated to the rise of parallel prose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the development of regular poems in the Tang Dynasty. Gradually, the red board was replaced by paper.
2. The earliest Spring Festival couplets
In the Five Dynasties, on the New Year's Eve in 964, Meng Changjun, the monarch of Houshu, ordered Xin Yanxun, a bachelor, to write a peach symbol on the bedroom door, but he was not satisfied, so he wrote a couplet himself: "New Year's Eve, Qing Yu, Jiajie, Changchun." This is the origin of the earliest Spring Festival couplets.
In the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi wrote in the poem "January Day": "Spring breeze removes firecrackers and sends warmth into Tu Su; Thousands of families always change new peaches into old ones. " It can be seen that writing Spring Festival couplets to celebrate the Spring Festival was very popular at that time.
3. Emperor who loves to write Spring Festival couplets
On New Year's Day one year, Ming Taizu issued a decree ordering people all over Beijing to post Spring Festival couplets at the gate. Moreover, early the next morning, the emperor personally made a patrol and looked at them from house to house. Suddenly, the emperor saw a family that didn't put up Spring Festival couplets at the door. When asked, it turns out that this family is engaged in castration, has not read any books, and has no time to invite people to write Spring Festival couplets.
So the emperor was in a good mood that day and wrote a couplet to the family: "Cut off the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife." This is a well-known story.
4. Zhu Yuanzhang turned "carving peach symbols" into the custom of "sticking Spring Festival couplets", which expanded from the palace to the homes of ordinary people overnight.
Spring Festival couplets are very popular.
In the late Qing Dynasty, artists who wrote Spring Festival couplets for others and "stalls" selling Spring Festival couplets appeared in the society. Spring Festival couplets have really become a part of China people's New Year life customs. Moreover, after dinner, you should close the door and open the door on the first morning to "welcome the God of Wealth". This taboo custom related to Spring Festival couplets not only adds some mystery, but also enriches the festive color of the New Year.