In the 1980s, I went to Shenyang Forbidden City several times and found that many gates of Shenyang Forbidden City were hung with white couplets. I thought these couplets had faded because of the baptism of years. Unexpectedly, more than ten years later, the mystery of the white couplets in Shenyang Forbidden City was unveiled by Xinhua News Agency reporters. It turns out that the white couplets hanging in the Forbidden City in Shenyang are Spring Festival couplets in the Qing Dynasty.
Spring Festival couplets are the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. Our common Spring Festival couplets are written in red paper, because red represents happiness and auspiciousness in Chinese culture, and there is a fashionable word called "passionate and unrestrained". Writing couplets in white paper is only used when the Han people hold funerals, which is called "elegiac couplet". Then, why did the white Spring Festival couplets, similar to the "elegiac couplet" of the Han nationality, hang in the court of the Qing Dynasty? During the Spring Festival of 2009, Xinhua News Agency interviewed Professor Wu Bin, President of Shenyang Palace Museum, and Tong Yue, Director of Research Office of Shenyang Palace Museum.
Wu Bin said that during the New Year, people should stick up door gods and Spring Festival couplets, and the court of the Qing Dynasty was no exception. The difference is that the Royal Door Keepers and couplets are hung, not pasted. Spring Festival couplets are not written in red paper, but in white paper or white silk, with blue edges on the outside and red stripes embedded inside. Calligraphy was originally written in Manchu, and changed to Chinese characters after the middle of Qing Dynasty. The door gods hanging in the Qing palace are first framed with copper ornaments, painted on thick silk or cloth and edged with yellow silk. There are four kinds of door gods, namely, Golden Door God, Gu Wu Fengdeng Door God, Fushou Shuangquanxian Door God, and Boy Door God.
Tong Yue, director of the research office of Shenyang Palace Museum, said that after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, many Manchu folk customs were gradually brought to the court. The difference between the folk Chinese New Year and the palace is that the royal door gods and couplets are hung, not posted. Spring Festival couplets are written in white paper or white silk instead of red paper. The hanging time is from the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the 16th of the first month of last year.
Tong Yue explained that white couplets are a feature of Manchu. Early Manchu people were cheap, red and white. They think red is a very unlucky color. We (hunt) in the mountains in winter. Red is the color of raw meat, which is very vulnerable to wild animals. So Manchu people hunt in winter, and hunters wear white clothes. From the Qing Dynasty to the Qianlong period, the habit of accepting the Han nationality became more and more, and the Spring Festival couplets of Manchu civilians gradually became popular. But it is also edged with the color of the national flag, and the court couplets have always been white. At present, there are many Qing Dynasty door gods and Spring Festival couplets in Shenyang Forbidden City, which are still hung during the Spring Festival every year.