Couplets are developed from the antithesis of regular poems, and retain some characteristics of regular poems. The ancients compared reciting poems with reciting poems, which reflected the relationship between them to some extent. Couplets require neat antithesis, smooth coordination, flat tail on the top and flat tail on the bottom. These characteristics are similar to those of regular poems, so some people call couplets paste poems. But couplets are different from poems. Generally speaking, only the upper couplet and the lower couplet are more refined than poems, and the sentence patterns are more flexible, long or short, flexible and changeable. Couplets can be four characters, five characters, six characters, seven characters, eight characters, nine characters, crosses and dozens of crosses. There are even hundreds of long couplets in ancient buildings in China. Whether the couplets sing about things and express their aspirations, or write scenery and express their feelings, they all require the author to have a high generalization ability and the ability to control words. Only a few words can make it both literary and emotional, both spiritual and formal, giving people the feeling of both ideological and artistic. Couplets carved on pillars, also known as couplets, are a unique literary form in China. It began in the Five Dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with a history of 1000 years.
A brief history of couplets
As early as before the Qin and Han dynasties, there was a custom of hanging peach symbols in the New Year. The so-called Fu Tao is to write the names of the legendary gods "shentu" and "Lei Yu" on two mahogany boards and hang them on the left and right doors to exorcise ghosts and eliminate evil spirits. This custom lasted for more than 1000 years, and it was not until the Five Dynasties that people began to paste couplets on mahogany boards. According to "Song Shi Shu Jia", after five dynasties, Meng Chang, the master of Shu State, "divided every year, ordered the bachelor to be the word, inscribed the peach symbol, and placed the bedroom door on the left and right." At the end of this year (AD 964), the bachelor was lucky enough to write a poem by Yin Xun. Because he had no experience, he pretended to write a poem entitled "Welcome Qing Yu in the New Year and celebrate Changchun", which was the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. After the Song Dynasty, it has become quite common for people to hang Spring Festival couplets in the New Year. The phrase "new color green" is a true portrayal of the grand occasion at that time. Because the appearance of Spring Festival couplets is closely related to peach symbols, the ancients also called Spring Festival couplets "peach symbols".
It was not until the Ming Dynasty that people began to use red paper instead of red boards, which led to the Spring Festival couplets we see today. According to Miscellaneous Notes of Mao Yunlou, before the Lunar New Year's Eve, after Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of Ming Dynasty, made Jinling his capital, he ordered officials and literati to hang a pair of Spring Festival couplets at home, go out incognito in person, watch from house to house and have fun. From then on, all scholars think antithesis is an elegant thing. After entering the Qing Dynasty, couplets once flourished, and many famous couplets appeared.
With the development of cultural exchanges between countries, couplets have also been introduced to Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. These countries still have the custom of pasting couplets.
Types of couplets
Judging from the content reflected and the occasions used, couplets can be divided into:
Spring Festival couplets:
The couplets specially posted on New Year's Day and Spring Festival are called Spring Festival couplets because of their strong timeliness.
Such as: Vientiane renewal, reunification and rejuvenation
Couplets:
In order to express a certain desire or meet the needs of decoration, couplets used to be engraved on official posts, houses, temples and gardens, or on wooden boards or on wall stones, collectively called couplets.
For example, 1979, the "Yue Temple" in Hangzhou was renovated. Zhao Puchu, a well-known contemporary poet and calligrapher, changed the meaning of Yue Fei's "Red River" and carefully wrote a magnificent new couplet on the pillars on both sides of the reconstructed Yue Fei statue: observing the weather, rejuvenating the people's soul, rejuvenating the temple at present, reopening the ancient cypress and looking up to Chihiro.
Marriage alliance:
Couplets specially selected or written on the wedding day can express a warm atmosphere.
Such as: skillfully using flowers and moonlight to make autumn nights and spring nights.
Elegance:
In order to evaluate the life achievements of ancestors and express the sincere nostalgia of future generations, couplets are used at memorial services or commemorative meetings.
For example, an elegy in memory of the beloved Premier Zhou: With painstaking efforts, the revolutionary cause of veteran cadres is like the towering Mount Tai, shaking the world, and the ashes are scattered all over the kindness of the Prime Minister, like drops of rain and dew, nourishing people's hearts.
First couplet:
When the elderly celebrate their birthdays, children often carefully write some auspicious words, stick them on the door or hang them in the hall to express their blessings to their elders. Such couplets are called birthday couplets.
Happy as the East China Sea, longevity is better than Nanshan.
Characteristics of couplets
Couplets vary in length, only one or two words are short; It can be hundreds of words long. There are various forms of couplets, such as pairs, pairs, flowing pairs, couplets, set sentence pairs and so on. However, no matter what kind of couplets and forms are used, they must have the following characteristics:
First, the number of words should be equal and the sentences should be consistent. In addition to deliberately leaving a place for a word to achieve a certain effect, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be the same, neither more nor less.
Second, it is necessary to be honest and have a harmonious tone. The traditional habit is to "pucker up and fall flat", that is, the end of the last sentence of the first couplet is puckered up and the end of the last sentence of the second couplet is flat.
Third, the parts of speech should be relative and the position should be consistent. It is generally called "virtual to virtual, real to real", which means that nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, adjectives to adjectives, quantifiers to quantifiers, adverbs to adverbs and related words must be in the same position.
Fourth, the content should be related and run through from top to bottom. The meaning of up and down links must be interrelated, but they cannot be repeated.
In addition, the traditional practice of hanging couplets must be written straight and pasted vertically, from right to left and from top to bottom, and cannot be reversed.
The horizontal criticism closely related to couplets can be said to be the title and center of couplets. Good reviews can make the finishing point and complement each other in couplets.