Spring Festival couplets are one of the highlights of the Chinese New Year and a unique cultural phenomenon in China. The red Spring Festival couplets shine with the light of the festival and contain endless connotation and elegant charm. It is not meaningless to review some ancient Spring Festival couplet stories. The editor has compiled why reading Spring Festival couplets is also a good way to learn. Welcome to refer to it.
Why reading Spring Festival couplets is also a good way to learn
Tracing the history of Spring Festival couplets
Spring couplets originated from Taofu (rectangular rectangles hung on both sides of the gate in the Zhou Dynasty) peach board).
According to "Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Etiquette Chronicles", the peach charms are six inches long and three inches wide. The names of "Shen Tu" and "Yulei", the great ghost descending gods, are written on the peach wood board to suppress evil spirits. evil.
It is reported that the world's earliest Spring Festival couplets collected by the China World Records Association are: "The three Yangs began to be clothed, and the Four Seasons began to bloom." This Spring Festival couplet was recorded in the Dunhuang suicide note unearthed from the Mogao Grottoes. This suicide note records twelve Spring Festival couplets written on the new year's day and the beginning of spring. This couplet is the first in the order, and the couplet was written by Liu Qiuzi, a Tang Dynasty man.
In the Five Dynasties, Meng Chang, the Queen of Shu, was a monarch who liked to be unconventional. On New Year's Eve at the end of 964 AD, he had a sudden idea and asked his bachelor named Xin Yinxun to write two sentences on a peach board and hang them on the door frame of his room as a peach charm. These two sentences are "New Year's greetings, happy festivals and Changchun".
The term "Spring Couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. According to the records of Chen Yunchan, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, "The establishment of Spring Festival couplets dates back to the Ming Dynasty Taizu. In the imperial capital of Jinling (now Nanjing), no edicts should be delivered before New Year's Eve. A Spring Festival couplet must be added to the door of the homes of ministers, officials and common people, and the emperor will go out for a visit."
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang paid a private visit incognito that night. He was naturally very happy when he saw bright red Spring Festival couplets posted everywhere he went. Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang went to a place, he saw that there were no Spring Festival couplets posted on the door, and he was furious. After careful questioning, I found out that the owner of the house was a butcher, illiterate, and unable to ask for help. After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he wrote a couplet with a stroke of his pen: Split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the roots of right and wrong with one knife.
The emperor’s promotion made Spring Festival couplets more and more popular, forming a trend that continues to this day.
The humanistic charm in the Spring Festival couplets
The calligrapher Wang Xizhi (321-379) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was originally from Langya, Shandong (today's Linyi, Shandong), and later lived in Shanyin, Kuaiji (today's Linyi) Shaoxing, Zhejiang). One New Year's Eve, Xi Zhi wrote a couplet "Spring breeze, spring rain, spring scenery, New Year, New Year, New Scenery" and posted it in front of his house. Because his calligraphy was so famous, someone secretly took it away that night. Wang Xizhi was not angry when he heard about it. He rewrote a picture of "Orioles sing in the north and the swallows sing in the southern suburbs" and asked his family to post it in front of their door. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, the family found that the Spring Festival couplets had been taken away again. The next day was the first day of the Lunar New Year, and everyone was extremely anxious. Wang Xizhi had an idea and wrote another picture. After writing, he asked his family to cut off half of the couplet and stick only the upper half to the door frame. This became "Blessings come in pairs, misfortunes never come singly".
In the early hours of the morning, another person came to steal the Spring Festival couplets. The man took a look at the couplets under the moonlight and saw that the couplets were unpredictable and unlucky, so he had no choice but to return empty-handed. Early the next morning, Wang Xizhi went out in person and pasted up the lower half of the couplet that he had cut out last night. Immediately, neighbors came to watch. The couplet became "unparalleled blessings have come this morning, and misfortunes do not come alone last night", which is wonderful. After everyone read it and learned the inside story, they all clapped and cheered. Wang Xizhi's wisdom, generosity and humor are evident!
During the reign of Zhezong (Zhao Xu) of the Northern Song Dynasty, a young official named Wang in Bianjing had a young daughter named Wang Yuzhu. She was naturally beautiful and versatile and came to propose marriage. There is an endless stream of people. Miss Wang refused them all, and her parents were very anxious. It turned out that Wang Yuzhu had her own ideas, and she wanted to choose her lover by means of Spring Festival couplets. His father had no choice but to agree and put up a "recruiting son-in-law" notice on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the day of the Zao Festival (Little Year). This incident shocked the capital, and there was a lot of excitement in front of the palace gate. The first couplet written by Miss Wang was "Capture the dragon, pierce the blood and grind it to write Gengdong". This question stumped all the "applicants". There were only a few candidates who answered the second couplet, and the few paintings they had were devoid of any literary talent and were not worth the effort. One reading.
When Miss Wang was disappointed, someone sent a second couplet, which said, "Catch colorful phoenixes, pick feathers and make paper to depict mandarin ducks." Wang Yuzhu secretly rejoiced and ordered the maid to invite the person into the room. We met each other, but we waited and saw no one coming.
A few days later, I received another second line, which was "Catch the moon rabbit, pluck the hair, tie the pen and draw the Luan calligraphy." The young lady shouted that it was a good couplet and hurriedly asked the maid to tell the author to come into the room and see it. Unexpectedly, the person who came was an old white man. Miss Wang was dumbfounded and blurted out a couplet: "Old white man in front of the white jade steps, please go out and end this crazy dream in this life." The old man actually replied, "The beauty in pink is inside the red tent. Invite me in to renew the good relationship in the previous life." The couplet is a witty couplet and the opposite is true. Wang Yuzhu chants another couplet: "Choosing a husband is not choosing a father. If you know what you are interested in, leave as soon as you know it." "Come here." Miss Wang immediately opened her almond-shaped eyes and was stunned!
The old man laughed and said: "Miss is really talented and talented!" He took out a letter and handed it to the lady: "Don't be ridiculous, I'm here to arrange the marriage alliance on behalf of a student." When Yuzhu Zhanxin read the letter, he was overjoyed and immediately knelt down and said: "You are always a bachelor of Su University, disrespectful, disrespectful!" This white old man is It was Su Dongpo, a great scholar of the dynasty, and the person who made the two couplets was Qin Xian, a descendant of the great talent Qin Shaoyou!
It turned out that when Qin Xian learned that Wang Yuzhu was choosing a son-in-law through the couplets, he came here with confidence and admiration. While waiting outside, I suddenly heard that my mother was critically ill and hurried back to her hometown. But the young talent did not want to lose his God-given fate, so he wrote to his mentor Su Shi to ask him to facilitate this beautiful thing. Miss Wang had also heard about Qin Xian's talents and knowledge for a long time, and today she learned that he was a disciple of Su Xueshi. Naturally, she was filled with joy and immediately agreed to the marriage. What a wonderful marriage, two talented people married!
Zheng Banqiao, a great painter of the Qing Dynasty, once served as the magistrate of Weixian County. On New Year's Eve one year, he and his colleagues went to patrol the streets and saw a house. A strange Spring Festival couplet was posted on the front: "Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine." Everyone was confused and wondering, but Zheng Banqiao asked everyone to wait, turned around and walked away alone. Everyone was confused and had to wait where they were. After a while, Zheng Xie returned out of breath, carrying rice, pork and a bag of clothes. He asked people to knock on the door of this house, only to see that the house had four walls, the whole family was crowded together, there was only a tattered quilt on the bed, and the kitchen was empty and freezing. Zheng Banqiao put down the food and clothes and said sincerely to the head of the household: "You have suffered and if you have difficulties in the future, just come to me directly!" The family burst into tears of gratitude and knelt down to express their thanks again and again. After leaving, the accompanying officials asked Zheng Xie: "I am really a man of God, how do you know that his family is living in cold weather?" Zheng Banqiao said seriously: "Read the Spring Festival couplets in front of the door, don't those eight words mean they? Que one ( Do you have ten (food) less clothes?" Everyone suddenly understood and praised Zheng Banqiao. He loved the people like a son, and he was knowledgeable and could see the subtleties!
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