It is said that Meng Chang, the king of the Later Shu Kingdom in the Five Dynasties, was a king who liked to be unconventional. On New Year's Eve at the end of 964 AD, he had a whim and asked one of his bachelors named Xin Yinxun to design a mahogany board Two sentences were written on it and hung as peach charms on the door frame of his residence. These two sentences are "New Year's greetings, happy festivals and Changchun". The main idea of ??the first sentence is: In the New Year, we enjoy the legacy of our ancestors. The main idea of ??the second sentence is: The festival heralds the everlasting spring. Since then, the form and content of Taofu have changed, which is not only reflected in the use of parallel couplets to replace "Shen Tu" and "Yulei", but also expanded the connotation of Taofu, not only to ward off evil and disaster, but also to Added content of prayers and wishes. This became the earliest Spring Festival couplets in our country.
By the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on peach boards. Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri" writes: "The sound of firecrackers eliminates the new year, and the spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu. Thousands of households always replace old talismans with new peaches." It reflects that every New Year's Eve, every household The grand occasion of hanging peach charms. At the same time, with the emergence of door gods and the use of red paper to write peach charms, which symbolized happiness and auspiciousness, the mission of the peach charms in the past to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters was gradually transferred to the door gods, and the content of the peach charms evolved to express people's prayers for good luck in the coming year. Good wishes for advent and abundant harvest.
The term "Spring Couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, became the emperor, he liked the pomp and bustle, and also liked the peach charms posted by wealthy families every New Year's Eve, so he wanted to promote it. Before New Year's Eve one year, he issued an imperial edict requiring every household in Jinling to paste Spring Festival couplets written on red paper on the door frame to welcome the New Year. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the Spring Festival couplets incognito from house to house. Whenever he saw a well-written Spring Festival couplet, he was very happy and praised it full of praise. When he was inspecting, he saw that a family did not post Spring Festival couplets. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry and asked the reason. The attendant replied: This is a master who is engaged in killing pigs and trimming pigs. They are very busy during the New Year and have not had time to hire someone to write them. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pens, inks, paper and inkstones and write a couplet for the family: "Cleave the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife." After writing, he continued to patrol. After a while, when Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace after his inspection, he passed by here again. He saw that the butcher's house had not posted the Spring Festival couplets written by him, so he asked what was going on? The owner of the family replied respectfully: "This couplet was written by the emperor himself. We hang it high in the middle hall and burn incense to worship it every day." Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy after hearing this and ordered his attendants to reward the family with thirty taels of silver. It can be seen that the naming and promotion of "Spring Couplets" were only promoted in every household by Zhu Yuanzhang through administrative orders and imperial edicts.
With the passage of time, Spring Festival couplets have become a broad concept, and many subsidiary categories have emerged. According to the place of use, it can be divided into frame pairs, horizontal drapes, spring strips, bucket squares, etc. The "frame pairs" affixed to the left and right doorframes are our common Spring Festival couplets; the "horizontal strips" affixed to the crossbar of the door are the horizontal scrolls of the Spring Festival couplets; the "spring strips" are affixed to the corresponding ones according to different contents. Local single text, such as "Look up to see happiness", "Enter and exit safely", "Congratulations on getting rich" and other words posted in the courtyard during the Chinese New Year; "Doujin", also called "door leaf", is a square rhombus , usually posted on furniture, single doors or screen walls. During the Spring Festival, people like to paste the word "福" upside down, which belongs to this kind of "Dou Jin".
Couplets are commonly known as couplets, also known as door couplets and couplets. Couplets are simple and profound, with neat contrasts and harmonious levels. They are a unique art form that combines Chinese characters and calligraphy. During the New Year, the couplets posted on the side of the door are also called Spring Festival couplets.
It is said that Spring Festival couplets evolved from "Peach Talisman". Peach charms are wooden boards on which door gods were painted in ancient times. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, the content of peach charms was gradually replaced by two pairs of auspicious verses, so a new form of couplets emerged, and then evolved into the custom of posting couplets during the Spring Festival.
In addition to pasting Spring Festival couplets on doors, Chinese tradition can also paste square red papers such as "Spring" and "Fu" indoors and outdoors. Some people will also paste the words "Spring" and "Fu" upside down. , because it is an inverted homophony of "arrive", this move means "spring has arrived" or "blessing has arrived".
Types of Spring Festival Couplets
There are many types of Spring Festival couplets, including street-door pairs, house-door pairs, short spring strips, and large spring strips. Each Spring Festival couplet has a horizontal scroll and the word "福", as well as squares and single stickers on the screen wall, doorsteps and holding pillars. Generally, the words "Go out to see happiness" are posted on the opposite side of the street door and the house door, "Look up to see happiness" on the inside, and "Yingyang", "Hongmu" and so on are posted on the screen wall. Old ladies like to buy those with auspicious words, such as "May you be blessed, live long and have descendants, and be prosperous and prosperous." Old men like to buy those with warnings. Some shops usually post "Business is booming all over the world, and wealth is prosperous reaching Sanjiang." . There are also words such as "Good luck opening the market" and "Everything goes well", etc., which are all posted on the door pillars of the shops.
The Mythical Story of Taofu
It is said that there is a big peach tree on Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea. The trunk of the tree bends and stretches for three thousand miles, and its forked branches stretch all the way to the ghost gate in the northeast. Under the ghost gate is a cave The ghosts who live there come in and out through this door every day. There are two divine generals guarding the tree: Shen Tu (pronounced Shen Shu) and Yu Lei (pronounced Yu Lu). Whenever these two gods find evil spirits that harm people, they will tie them up and throw them to tigers. Since the Zhou Dynasty, every New Year, people have used two peach boards six inches long and three inches wide to draw images of the two god generals or inscribe their names, and hang them on both sides of the gate or bedroom door to calm them down. This is the peach charm that drives away evil spirits and prays for blessings and good luck.
The historical story of the couplets
The earliest couplets in my country are said to be in the Five Dynasties (AD 964). Meng Chang inscribed auspicious words on the Taofu board: New Year's greetings, festivals No. Changchun. Some people also believe that as early as the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, Liu Xiaochuo was dismissed from office and did not go out, so he wrote: "Let's celebrate behind closed doors and lie down to thank the minister." His sister Liu Lingxian is also a poet full of literary talent. The couplet she inscribed is: The fallen flowers still close together, and the orchids are picked and come back to life.
In the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were promoted and used. Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri" of the Northern Song Dynasty describes the scene of people posting Spring Festival couplets at that time: the sound of firecrackers bids farewell to the old year, and the spring breeze brings warmth to the Tusu; thousands of households always replace the old peaches with new ones on the first day of the year.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, couplets engraved on wooden pillars also appeared in palaces, eunuchs, temples, etc., and later generations called them couplets (couples are pillars). At the same time, birthday couplets and elegiac couplets for social occasions also began to appear.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing. In order to celebrate the founding of the country, he issued a decree on New Year's Eve that ministers, officials and common people must put a Spring Festival couplet on their doors. This custom of turning "inscribing peach charms" into posting Spring Festival couplets was extended from the wealthy and powerful families to the common people overnight. Early the next morning (the first day of the Lunar New Year), Zhu Yuanzhang went out in private, strolling through the streets and alleys, appreciating the Spring Festival couplets. When he found a butcher whose family did not post Spring Festival couplets because they had no money to buy paper, he ordered people to get paper and ink, and then wrote a couplet for the butcher: split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the roots of right and wrong with one knife.
Stalls that write Spring Festival couplets
Generally those selling pairs start preparations after Laba Festival. Find a good place on the street, select a place in front of a business that is out of the way, say hello to that business, and write "Shuchun" and "Splashing Ink" on a piece of red paper. The words "Borrow paper and use words" were posted on the doorpost of that business. Then ask an acquaintance to contact Nanzhi Store, and Nanzhi Store can buy the red paper, brushes and ink on credit to him first, and then wait for him to sell out and close the stall, then settle the account and pay. Place an Eight Immortals table on the place where the red paper sign is posted. Cover the table with a red blanket. Place a pen holder with a few brushes inside, a small charcoal stove, a box for written couplets and a small box for money. Box. Put an inkstone on the charcoal stove. When preparing to write couplets, light the charcoal fire to warm the ink, because in the cold winter, the ink is easy to freeze. Then put the written Spring Festival couplets on the wall or outside the table, and hang a few with small threads to use as a cover to attract buyers. Use a small string to tighten it to prevent it from being blown by the wind. After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people buying pairs began to arrive one after another.