Origin
Spring couplets originated from Taofu. According to legend, in ancient times, the two brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei were very good at catching ghosts, and they helped many people. The reputation of the two brothers began to spread, but where the two brothers were not around, people had nothing to do. So people began to think of ways to ward off evil spirits and exorcise ghosts on New Year's Eve. They carved images of Shen Tu and Yu Lei out of peach wood and hung them at the door.
Development
With the development of the times, using peach wood to carve people is a waste of peach wood materials. People gradually began to use peach wood that was two or three feet long and four or five inches wide. They painted the statues of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on the peach wood board, and then wrote the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei, usually Zuo Yu Lei. , Youshentu.
During the Five Dynasties period, Taofu underwent new changes. At that time, people began to write some meaningful messages on peach symbols to express their expectations for the coming year, and at the same time, they also hoped to realize their best wishes. The earliest historical record of people writing inscriptions on peach charms is the inscription by Meng Chang, the monarch of Shu during the Five Dynasties: "New Year's greetings, the festival number is Changchun." This is the first Spring Festival couplet in Chinese history.
In the Ming Dynasty, Taofu was officially renamed "Spring Couplets". It is said that this was the name changed by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. After Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Jinling, he issued a decree before New Year's Eve, ordering every household, regardless of ministers or ordinary people, to write a couplet and paste it on the door. After the imperial edict was issued, Zhu Yuanzhang went out incognito and went on a tour to enjoy the Spring Festival couplets door to door for fun.
By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju’s monograph on Spring Festival couplets, "Three Couplets on the Threshold of the Spring Festival Couplets," gave a detailed account of the origins of the couplets and the characteristics of various works. Discussion. Spring couplets had become a literary and artistic form at that time.
With the development of cultural exchanges between countries, couplets were introduced to Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, Singapore and other countries. These countries still retain the custom of posting couplets.
Extended information:
The legend about Spring Festival couplets
According to legend, in the ancient Chinese mythology "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", there is a world of ghosts, with a On the mountain, there is a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and there is a golden rooster on the treetop. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghosts who wandered out at night will rush back to the ghost land. The gate of the ghost realm is located in the northeast of the peach tree. There are two gods standing by the gate, named Shen Tu and Yu Lei.
If a ghost does something harmful to nature at night, Shen Tu and Yu Lei will immediately discover it and catch it, tie it up with a rope made of awning reed, and send it to feed the tigers. Therefore, all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Yu Lei. So Chinese people carved their images out of peach wood and placed them at their doorsteps to ward off evil and harm.
Later, people simply engraved the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei on peach boards, believing that doing so could also suppress evil and eliminate evil. This kind of peach wood board was later called "Peach Run". In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on peach boards and red paper, which symbolized joy and auspiciousness, and posted them on both sides of doors and windows during the New Year to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Spring Festival Couplets