Emperor Qianlong was called "the son of heaven in couplets", and Peng Yuanrui was also good at couplets. Once, when meeting with the ci minister at the Qianlong banquet, he made a half couplet: "Cold wine, a little water, two water, three water". Peng Yuanrui said impromptu: "Lilac flowers, hundreds of prefixes, thousands of prefixes, ten thousand prefixes", and suddenly four seats were taken.
Peng Yuanrui is knowledgeable and expert in the identification of ancient objects, paintings and calligraphy. He has compiled such books and catalogues as The Secret Hall and the Bamboo Forest, The Treasure of Shiqu, The Ancient Mirror of Xiqing, The Ancient Mirror of Ningshou, and The Manual of Tianlu Linlang.
His poems and essays include Enyutang Collection, Jing Jin Draft, Si Liu Hua in Song Dynasty, Reading Postscript on Knowing the Holy Way and Zhai, etc. On Emperor Qianlong's 6th, 7th and 8th birthdays, he presented 3 poems, which were praised by the Emperor.
Extended information:
Origin:
Couplets originated from the symmetry of China's characters and sounds, and appeared before the Zhou Dynasty. The development of papermaking and calligraphy made couplets an independent style. Couplets are short in form and concise in wording, which is not only a vivid artistic expression, but also an excellent cultural heritage.
The time span is pre-Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties. In China's ancient poems, some neat antithetical sentences appeared very early. Several ancient ballads that have been handed down to this day have seen their origins. Such as "digging a well and drinking, plowing and eating", "working at sunrise, taking a rest every day" and so on. To the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, antithetical sentences were even more common.
Baidu encyclopedia-Peng Yuanrui