The upper part of the seven characters are elegant utensils, and the lower part of the seven characters are all necessary for life. To be elegant is to be vulgar, that is, to be vulgar is to be elegant.
1 development origin?
antithetical couplets
Couplets, also known as antithesis, door-to-door, spring stickers, Spring Festival couplets, couplets, peach symbols, couplets (named after the pillars hanging in the halls and houses in ancient times), are a kind of dual literature, which originated from peach symbols. It is a dual sentence written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. It is a unique art form of Chinese language with concise and profound meaning, neat antithesis, level and level coordination, the same number of words and the same structure? .
Couplets are said to have originated from Meng chǎng, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. It is a treasure of traditional culture in China. Couplets hung during the Spring Festival are called Spring Festival couplets, couplets for funerals are called elegiac couplets, and couplets for happy events are called Qinglian couplets. Couplets are a national style written by using the characteristics of Chinese characters, and generally do not need to rhyme (only the antithetical sentences in regular poems need to rhyme).
Parallel prose and regular poems are the two direct sources of couplets. In the process of its own development, couplets have absorbed the characteristics of ancient poetry, prose, lyrics and songs. Therefore, the sentence patterns used in couplets, in addition to regular poems and parallel prose sentences, also include ancient poems, prose sentences and parody sentences. Different sentence patterns have different metrical patterns and different widths and strictness. Among them, the sentence pattern of rhythmic poetry is the most strict, while the ancient verse pattern is not limited in other positions except for the end of the sentence.
Spring Festival couplets have a long history, which is said to have originated from Meng Chang, the master of Shu in the Five Dynasties. His inscription on the peach symbol on the door panel of the dormitory: "Welcome to Qing Yu in the New Year, and the number of Jiajie Festival is Changchun", which means that the text "inscribed the peach symbol" (see "Shu Lang"), which is the earliest couplet in China and the first Spring Festival couplet. ? The basis of this statement is that Liang Zhangju, a couplets scholar in Qing Dynasty, quoted Shu Lang Lang from Couplets Conghua. However, according to the textual research of Couplets Overview, Liang Zhangju changed "to work with its words" to "not work with its words" and "Shu Lang Lang Lang" when quoting. Different historical materials in Song Dynasty have different opinions about this, and some people classify the author as Meng Chang's son. Therefore, who is the author of this pair of Spring Festival couplets is still an unsolved case.
couplets
As a custom, couplets are an important part of China traditional culture. In 25, China the State Council listed the custom of couplets as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. The custom of couplets is passed down and spread in Chinese-speaking areas and ethnic groups with cultural origins of Chinese characters, which is of great value for promoting Chinese culture.
Historical origin
Couplets are antithetical literature. The parallel symmetry of this kind of language and writing is similar to the so-called "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments" in philosophy. That is to say, everything in the world is divided into two symmetrical halves of yin and yang, which are extremely similar in thinking essence. Therefore, we can say that the philosophical origin and deep national cultural psychology of China's couplets are the dual concept of Yin and Yang. The dualism of yin and yang is the basis of the world outlook of ancient China people. It is that way of thin of ancient China people to grasp things with the dual concept of Yin and Yang. This idea of duality of yin and yang has a long history. The divinatory symbols in the Book of Changes are composed of yin and yang, and the Book of Changes says, "One yin and one yang is the Tao." Laozi also said: "Everything is negative and holds Yang, and rushing to think that it is harmonious." ("Lao Zi" Chapter 42. Xunzi thought: "Heaven and earth combine to create everything, and Yin and Yang combine to change." (Xunzi's Theory of Rites) Huang Lao's Silk Book says: "The way of heaven and earth has left and right, yin and yang." This concept of Yin and Yang is not only an abstract concept, but also widely infiltrated into the ancient China people's understanding and explanation of everything in nature and human society.
The preface to the Book of Changes says, "There is heaven and earth and then everything, everything and then men and women, men and women and then couples, couples and then fathers and sons, fathers and sons and ministers, ministers and ministers and then ups and downs, ups and downs and then manners." In Yi Zhuan, various concrete things are used to symbolize Yin and Yang. Yin represents Kun, earth, female, woman, son, minister, abdomen, lower, north, wind, water, lustre, flower, black and white, submissive, etc. Correspondingly, Yang represents dry, heavenly, male, husband, father, monarch, head, upper, south, thunder, fire, mountain, fruit, red and yellow, vigorous and so on. This ubiquitous concept of yin and yang has penetrated into the subconscious of the Chinese nation, thus becoming a collective unconscious of the nation. The concept of yin and yang is manifested in national psychology, and one of the important characteristics is the persistence and infatuation with things that appear in the form of "two" and "pair". The format of couplets is strict, and the parts of speech are relative. Traditional couplets are connected in form, connected in content, coordinated in tone and rigorous in antithesis.
language roots
a pair of standard couplets, its most essential feature is "antithesis". When it is expressed orally, it is a verbal confrontation, and when it is written, it is a textual confrontation. What is the meaning of language antithesis? Usually, we talk about four items: equal number of words, relative parts of speech, flat and oblique contradiction, and the same syntax. The most important of the four items is equal number of words and flat and oblique contradiction. Here, the number of words is equal, which is different from the "number of words" in English, and its essence is equal syllables. That is, one syllable corresponds to one syllable. In English, the words "car" and "jeep" are equal in number, but not in syllables. And Chinese "truck" and "jeep" are equal in number and syllable. The reason why Chinese can achieve "syllable" equality is because Chinese is a language with monosyllabic as the basic unit. Syllables, morphemes and characters are trinity. Each syllable in Chinese has a strong independence, and it has a certain length and tone. In ancient times, there were four tones: flat, rising, going and entering, but now there are rising tone, falling tone, rising tone and rising tone.
antithetical couplets
have four tones, all of which are divided into two categories: flat tones. A flat confrontation is a contradiction. In this way, between morphemes in Chinese (that is, between words), an antithetical relationship with equal number of words and even words can be established. In English, even if the names and concepts of things can be relative, the number and parts of speech of words can be relative, and the sentence patterns of two sentences can be relative, but their syllables are different in length, weak in independence, free to spell and without tones, so they can't be relative. Couplets are mostly written in words, and they are often written, hung or engraved on other buildings or objects. Therefore, the second level of antithesis of couplets is the so-called literal opposition. The relativity of words means that couplets are not only language art, but also decorative art. As a pair of couplets of decorative art, it requires neatness and symmetry, giving people a harmonious and symmetrical beauty. Chinese characters just have the conditions to achieve neat symmetry. They exist in the form of individual squares, square and neat, and occupy equal spatial positions in writing. It is readable and visible. Its square configuration not only has aesthetic principles, but also contains mechanical requirements. Whether it is written horizontally or vertically, it can appear dense, neat and beautiful. English, on the other hand, is a phonetic alphabet, and each word has different lengths, which only expresses sound, not meaning, and is even less visible. It can only be arranged horizontally, not vertically, and it is impossible to achieve real symmetry in form. In the next interview, two Chinese and English antitheses with the same meaning are compared to further explain why only Chinese has a real antithesis, while English and other pinyin characters can't.
Couplets originated in the Qin Dynasty, and were called Taofu in ancient times. With regard to the earliest couplets in China, Mr. Tan Chanxue wrote in the fourth issue of Knowledge of Literature and History in 1991 that the earliest couplets in China appeared in the Tang Dynasty. He took the Dunhuang suicide note with the volume number Stein 61 unearthed from the Tibetan Sutra Cave in the Mogao Grottoes as the basis:
Year and date: Sanyang began to spread, and the four orders began to open.
Fuqing is new at the beginning, and longevity is prolonged.
again, the three yang's return to the beginning, and the four orders are auspicious.
it's a happy new day to celebrate your birthday.
beginning of spring Day: When the copper is muddy, it celebrates the mat, and the jade law begins to adjust the yang.
apart from three disasters, Five Blessingg has suffered numerous disasters throughout the ages.
Baoji can ward off evil, while Ruiyan can solve it.
beginning of spring □ (home), Sun Chang, Fukiko.
And: Three Yang began to spread, and four Meng (Meng) began to open.
Zhao Zhixin, the author of Tone Spectrum, clearly pointed out: "Two sentences are connected, and four sentences are unique (sentences), which began in the Six Dynasties, and the yuan (original) is not close." Wang Fuzhi said that couplets originated from the theory of regular poems, just like "decapitation and foot gouging, which crippled people's physiology"-
couplets in Qing Shi Hua originated from the symmetry of China's writing and pronunciation, and appeared before the Zhou Dynasty. The development of papermaking and calligraphy made couplets an independent style.
The couplets are short and concise, which is not only a vivid artistic expression, but also an excellent cultural heritage. The couplets were developed on the basis of ancient "Taofu" and "antithesis". The earliest couplets in China appeared more than 1 years ago. According to historical records, on the eve of the Spring Festival in the twenty-seventh year of Guangzheng (AD 9 * * *), Meng Chang, the master of Houshu, was good at learning couplet on weekdays, so when the New Year came, he suddenly gave an order to ask his ministers to write antithetical sentences on the "Taofu Board" to test his talents. The ministers each wrote a picture and waited patiently for the review. Meng Chang looked at them one by one, but they were not satisfied. So he personally put pen to paper and wrote "New Year's Qing Yu" on the "Taofu Board"; Festival number Changchun ". This is the earliest Spring Festival couplets written by China. The exquisite format of couplets not only has a long history and traditional habits, but also has a unified and fixed format on the basis of widespread use by the masses. From the literary point of view, it is a special style with more emphasis and stricter requirements in China's folk cultural heritage. From the format point of view, it is closely combined with the characteristics of real life, including two doorframes and a lintel road, and accordingly consists of three parts: the first part, also called the sentence; Bottom line: the second sentence, also called antithesis; Banner: also called horizontal batch or horizontal cross-dressing. The upper and lower couplets are the main parts of couplets, which are both wonderful and indispensable. In addition, in the practical application of couplets, no matter how long the upper and lower couplets are, there is generally no punctuation, which is also a special emphasis on format. But there are exceptions
From the perspective of literary history, couplets are gradually evolved and developed from antithetical sentences in ancient poetry and prose. This development process has gone through about three stages.