Qing Yu in the New Year;
Jiajie Changchun.
-written by Meng Chang
This pair of couplets written by Meng Chang is engraved on a peach symbol. Fu Tao is an ancient custom. On New Year's Day (that is, this Spring Festival), the names of the legendary "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" Er Shen were written on a mahogany board and hung by the door to ward off evil spirits. According to Shan Hai Jing, Shen Tu and Lei Yu lived under a big peach tree on Dushuo Mountain. This peach tree winds for three thousand miles, and ghosts haunt the northeast gate of death. When Shen Tu and Lei Yu saw evil spirits, they tied them up and fed them to tigers. Therefore, since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people have regarded Shen Tu and Lei Yu as "door gods" to defend the fierce. It was not until Meng Chang inscribed Spring Festival couplets on Fu Tao that Fu Tao became a special form for the author to express a certain theme, which is the origin of Spring Festival couplets. It is generally believed that couplets began in Shu after the Five Dynasties.
There are four views on this connection:
The ancient and modern poetry talks says: "Chang Zi is good at calligraphy, and literature sprouted here because of this palace book cloud:' Heaven hangs down and celebrates, and the land meets Changchun'." According to this, the couplet is "the sky hangs down and celebrates, and the land meets Changchun". The writer is Meng Chang's son Meng Zhe. Huang Xiu's Mao Ting Hakka also contains the same content.
"Luo Zhong Lu Jiyi" says: "Near Miyagi, there is the residence of Cexun, where Zhezhe, the son of Shichang, lives. I often wrote a book at the end of the year, saying, "The ceremony of heavenly descent is a sacred day in Changchun." Zhebai, put it around the bedroom door. According to this, the couplet is "Celebration from Heaven, Sacred for Changchun", written by Meng Chang himself.
Yuan Tan says, "New is Meng Changjun. Julian Waghann (note: Song Jun) will ask a bachelor to write a poem and write it on the symbol of a peach. Yin Xun wrote: "Qing Yu is in the New Year and Changchun is in the festival." "Accordingly, couplets are in the new year and Changchun is in the festival", written by Xin.
"History of the Song Dynasty and Family History of Shu" said: "Every year, in addition to Meng Taste, the bachelor is given a word, inscribed with a peach symbol, and a bedroom door is set around. At the end of the year, I wrote a new poem. Because I didn't do anything, I called myself a pen cloud:' Chinese New Year, Qing Yu, Jiajie, Changchun.' "This couplet is the same as that of Meng Chang, but the author is not Xin. The same is true of History of Song Dynasty, Records of Five Elements and Shu Lang.
Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the latter theory has generally been adopted. "Last year" was the year before Meng Changjun returned to Song Dynasty, that is, Song Taizu (Zhao Kuangyin) went to Germany for two years (AD 964). Since then, Spring Festival couplets have gradually become a folk custom. Wang Anshi's poem "January Day", "Thousands of households always change new peaches for old ones", is enough to prove this point.
What does this couplet mean?
Literally, "accept" means "enjoy"; "Qing Yu" used to mean "the legacy of the previous generation" and "Yijing Kunwen": "Where there is a good family, there must be Qing Yu." The theme of the first couplet is to enjoy the legacy of the previous generation in the New Year. The main idea of the second couplet is that festivals indicate that spring is always there.
From this perspective, this couplet is only a blessing to the Spring Festival, and there is nothing new.
Strictly speaking, this couplet is not very legal in leveling. Although people think it is the earliest recorded couplet so far, it is so famous not because it is the first, not because of its high artistic level, but because Song people think it is a prophecy, which indicates that Shu will be destroyed in Song Dynasty.
In the Spring Festival of 964, Meng Changjun formed an alliance. In 965, Zhao Kuangyin, Song Taizu, sent troops to reunify Shu, kidnapped Meng Chang and others, and appointed a person named Lv Yuqing as the local governor of Chengdu (the former capital of Shu). In addition, in the first year of Stegosaurus (AD 960), Song Taizu named the birthday of February 16 of the lunar calendar as "Dragon Spring Festival" and called it "Holy Festival". When Meng Changjun surrendered to Song Dynasty, it was Song Taizu's birthday. Whether this situation is a coincidence with couplets or is known in advance cannot be verified today. However, this pair of Spring Festival couplets written by Meng Chang has left an important page in the history of the development of China couplets, but it is undeniable.