The best second couplet is Zu Chongzhi
This couplet is: "Sun Xingzhe, Zu Chongzhi". "Ancestor" is against "Sun", surname is against surname, and it is also a pair of names in terms of seniority, "Chong" is against "Xing", verb is against verb, "Zhi" is against "Zhe", the classical Chinese function words are opposite, the pair is impeccable, what a good one It is absolutely true through the ages. Later, there were some good people who specially composed two poems for this purpose, saying: "A sun traveler is born, and an ancestor is born on the earth."
The origin of the couplet story
During the enrollment of Tsinghua University in 1932, Chen Yinke, a great writer at the time, came up with questions for the Chinese language test. At that time, there were always two Chinese questions and one question. It's a composition, and the other question is a couplet question. The couplet given by Chen Yinke at that time was "Sun Xingzhe". Sun Xingzhe is naturally the Monkey King, the Monkey King in "Journey to the West".
The candidates were confused when they saw this couplet and did not know how to answer it. Some people answered Erlang Shen, Zhu Bajie, Tathagata Buddha, while others answered Jia Baoyu, Lu Zhishen and so on.
But these are not the answers. The answer given by Chen Yinke at that time was "Hu Shizhi". The "Hu Shi" here was Hu Shi, another great writer at the time.
However, one candidate gave an answer that was even more standard than the standard answer. This answer is "zu Chongzhi" and "zu" correspond to "grandson". "Chong" and "Xing" are both verbs for progress. , in addition, "zhi" and "zhe" are both particles. Absolutely. Chen Yinke saw this lower line and immediately admitted the candidate.
Extended information:
Couplet background story
According to common sense, "pairing" is an enlightenment lesson for scholars in the old era, starting from the age of three or four. Starting to play something for a lifetime can train and test the ability to compare words and ideas, and it also has extremely rich historical and cultural connotations. However, the new education and the vernacular movement have put it aside. So, knowledgeable people advocate practicing this lesson. It makes sense to come back.
This is a general explanation, but of course Chen Yinke’s pattern is not the only one. What he cares about is a bigger issue: the academic and cultural foundation of Chinese language in the future.
The title of the essay he gave to graduate students directly touches on this point: "Which language family does Chinese belong to among the world's languages? What are its characteristics and what is its evolution? Let's give a few examples to illustrate. "It's a pity that relatively few people have talked about this issue.