First, the number of words should be equal. The number of words online equals the number of words offline. The number of words in each clause of the long couplet is equal.
Overlapping or overlapping words are allowed in sentences. Folding in half and overlapping words are commonly used rhetorical devices in couplets, but attention should be paid to the consistency of the upper and lower couplets when overlapping.
However, we should try to avoid "homophony" and "homophony" in couplets. The so-called homonym means that the same word is opposite in the same position of the upper and lower parts. The so-called ectopic reduplication refers to the fact that the same word appears in different positions in the upper and lower links.
Second, equivalence of parts of speech. There are two types of parts of speech in modern Chinese, namely, notional words and function words. The former includes nouns (including locative words), verbs, adjectives (including color words), numerals, quantifiers and pronouns. The latter includes adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary words, exclamations and onomatopoeias.
Third, the structure is commensurate. The so-called structural proportion means that the grammatical structure of the upper and lower conjunctions (or the structure of their phrases and sentence patterns) should be as consistent as possible, that is, the subject-predicate structure is opposite to the subject-predicate structure, the verb-object structure is opposite to the verb-object structure, the partial structure is opposite to the partial structure, and the coordinate structure is opposite to the coordinate structure, and so on.
Fourth, the rhythm corresponds. That is, the places where the up and down links stop must be consistent.
The fifth is uniformity and harmony. What is leveling? The classification of flat tones in Putonghua is, in short, flat tones and upper tones, flat tones and flat tones. In the ancient four tones, the flat sound is flat, and the rising, going and entering sounds are silent.
Sixth, the content is relevant.
The ancients studied the content and form of Spring Festival couplets. Because the format of Spring Festival couplets originated from China's classical poems, the original Spring Festival couplets required strict words to be even, that is, every word of the upper and lower couplets should be in one tone of Yin and Yang, and then written in calligraphy with well-organized skills, so ancient literati regarded Spring Festival couplets as a profound and elegant artistic creation.
However, with the popularization of vernacular Chinese and popular culture, people have paid less attention to the strict antithesis principle pursued by the ancients, but a decent couplet should at least pay attention to equivalence in word selection, that is, the number of words and the part of speech should be relative. According to the norms of modern Chinese, nouns, adjectives, verbs, numerals and other phrases in the upper and lower couplets should be arranged in an orderly way, and the last word of each pair of upper and lower couplets should be at least even. Generally speaking, if the last word in the upper couplet is a hyphen (that is, the third and fourth sounds of Chinese Pinyin), then the last word in the lower couplet should be a flat tone (that is, the first and second sounds of Chinese Pinyin). This should be the minimum requirement for creating couplets, otherwise it is not called couplets, at least it is not a standard couplet. The traditional method of posting Spring Festival couplets by Zheng is adapted from the Spring Festival words of Chinese newspapers in Moscow. When facing the gate, the upper couplet is on the right, the lower couplet is on the left, and the order of banners is from right to left. The other is the commonly used paste method. After liberation, because the horizontal writing format was changed from left to right, Spring Festival couplets can also be hung left and right, and the order of banners is also from left to right, which is suitable for people's reading habits. It is not civilized to "mix" two Spring Festival couplets together.