Different regions, different nationalities, different industries and even different villages all have their own unique folk customs. Only affixing couplets is the most extensive, universal, civilized and culturally rich folk custom with the most national characteristics. It is the unique spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation and unique in the world.
Couplets hanging on posts are called couplets; The pair posted on the door is called the door couplet; The couplet is called nave; Wedding couplets are called wedding couplets; Hanging couplets at funerals is called elegiac couplets; Birthday for the elderly is called Shoulian; Couplets to congratulate all kinds of happy events are called He Lian; Spring Festival couplets are called Spring Festival couplets. There are also festival couplets, industry couplets, painting couplets, study couplets, calligraphy couplets and studio couplets, etc., which are the most fashionable, common, concentrated, grand and full of national characteristics.
With the passage of history and the widespread application of couplets culture, couplets are not only for pasting, hanging and decorating courtyards and buildings, but are integrated into people's whole lives. When playing, communicating, dining table and even meeting scholars, they all regard couplets as a kind of cultural exchange, cultural entertainment, even as a civilized dialogue, and some regard them as a tool to vent their feelings. In short, there have been many well-known stories about couplets in history.
according to legend, there is a story about a long-term laborer scolding the landlord. A poor scholar had no choice but to work for the landlord. On a summer day when there was no rain for a long time, the old landlord just asked the long-term workers to hoe the fields, saying that the drought was getting worse and worse, so the long-term workers and scholars had to hoe the fields in the hot sun. The old landlord sat on the field to supervise the work, and the working scholars were sweating and thirsty, so he had to ask the owner to give them some water to drink. Instead of offering water, the owner slipped out a couplet:
If it rains in the sky, it won't go into the water; if it rains, it will turn into water; if it rains, it will take much trouble, so it is better to go into the water.
after listening to the couplet of the owner, the scholar put down his hoe and answered the couplet in a flowing way:
The rich man eats shit only when he doesn't eat, and it takes much trouble to eat shit, so the rich man might as well eat shit.
When the old landlord who supervised the work heard that he felt humiliated, he left with water in a rage, and the scholar, a long-term worker, went to a nearby mountain spring to drink water at random.
It is also said that in ancient times, a scholar went to Beijing to catch the exam, and was robbed by robbers on the way, so he was hungry and had to beg. When he arrived at the door of a rich man, the rich man saw his poor face, that is, he sent a couplet saying, "Palm trees are peeled off and become bachelors."
Knowing that the rich man intended to satirize him, the scholar said to the next couplet, "Pepper opens its mouth and sees black heart.". Vividly and vividly reveals the black heart of the rich man.
It is said that after Yuan Shikai claimed to be the emperor, he ordered the whole country to celebrate. At that time, someone wrote such a couplet:
All people celebrate together, when the celebration should be celebrated, when it should be celebrated, when it should be celebrated, when it should be celebrated, when it should be celebrated, when it should be celebrated, when it should be celebrated, it should be celebrated.
When the country is celebrated, it should be celebrated, it will be crazy.
"When it should be celebrated, it should be celebrated" it should be celebrated This couplet skillfully expresses the people's contempt for Yuan Shikai.
There is also a story about a bachelor posting Spring Festival couplets. People celebrate the Spring Festival with happy family members, men, women and children, posting Spring Festival couplets and setting off firecrackers. Chinese New Year is like Chinese New Year, especially the couplets can't avoid customs. Therefore, I wrote myself a couplet:
There is wine, meat and tofu
No children, no daughters and no wives
The horizontal approval is: One person celebrates the New Year.
It shows that the custom of pasting couplets is very common, especially the Spring Festival couplets, which almost reaches the level of village rules and regulations. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, there will be a schedule every day, and 23 candied melons will be dipped (the day to send the kitchen god to heaven); Twenty-four, write big characters; Twenty-five, make tofu; Twenty-six, prepare meat (kill pigs and sheep); Twenty-seven, kill the rooster; Twenty-eight, white hair; Twenty-nine, all of them; Thirty-year-old, roll the boiled cake skin.
this twenty-four, writing in big characters, means buying red paper to write pairs, because there are very few people in a village, especially those who can write pairs. You must prepare well in advance, and ask your husband to write pairs well before posting them at thirty. In Beijing and West, couples are posted in the morning at the age of 3, which is probably the same in the whole country. Because thirty is the day of family reunion, it is already the New Year. Putting couplets on the New Year's Eve is more meaningful for getting rid of the old and welcoming the new.
Spring Festival couplets are not only posted on the second door of the gate, but also on the column of the big ladle, on the facing wall of going out, and on the screen wall of entering the door, a big blessing is posted, and it should also be given a small blessing on the nearest roller. There are fixed conjunctions in occasions closely related to life.
at the entrance of the pigsty, the words:
Six animals are thriving
Five crops are plentiful
Mules and horses flock
The words:
Walking thousands of miles every day
Walking 8 miles at night
The words "Have a safe journey" are posted on the saddle bridge, which is quite a cross-section of couplets. These couplets are all fixed place couplets, which are used by almost every family and are a folk custom with a big atmosphere.
interesting talk about couplets, talk about the past and discuss the present. There are many good couplets in history; Famous United families emerge one after another; Well-known couplet stories have mushroomed. It's just that individual vulgarity is outrageous, and it can't be elegant.
Nowadays, in a brand-new era of advanced culture, couplet culture is still a gorgeous flower, which is invincible in the cultural and artistic circles.
In order to absorb the nutrition of couplet culture, I visited several mountain villages and streets of Mencheng town in the west of Beijing. It can be seen that there are indeed many couplets written by the United family.
For example, the doorkeeper of a shoe store:
You must have a firm foothold in the future
There are numerous steps to distinguish
The doorkeeper of a butcher's shop:
Listen to the choice of fat, and make sure that you have no regrets
Never be short of two guarantees and be fair
The doorkeeper of a drugstore:
Sell at midnight
In the middle of the night. It expresses the business purpose and embodies the business characteristics, which has a certain positive effect on prospering the market, expanding commodity sales, improving service quality and decorating the shop facade. Even from the perspective of literature and art, these popular cultures are definitely vulgar but not vulgar.
during the journey of the couplet, I did see the flaws in the jade in the couplet or the fly in the ointment. Give me a bad impression: the content is too monotonous, the cultural connotation is too superficial, and some of them are really irrelevant.
when it comes to monotonous content, most couplets are either "wealth" or "blessing", and the couplets with the word "wealth" are the highest, almost half of them, and they are either rich in financial resources or prosperous in wealth. Perhaps this is a feature of the times, people pay too much attention to money. But I advise you not to forget that money is earned by people, as long as people live healthily, diligently, especially upright, make money wisely, and don't know whether there are financial resources. For example, some senior officials are rich, but they are still greedy. They dare to take bribes of millions or tens of millions of RMB and enrich themselves with the people's sweat. In the end, they end up in ruin. If he had hung such a couplet in his bedroom. And take it as a memorial, he and his family will be happy with him all their lives.
if you are lenient, the people will receive more.
If you take a penny, the officials will not be worth a penny.
This couplet fully demonstrates the importance of benefiting the people and being honest, and warns that officials should be honest, and they should not take a penny for ill-gotten gains.
The monotonous content is related to those who sell couplets. Most of the couplets I saw were printed. Every household in a region buys couplets from one or two vendors, and the content is definitely monotonous or even the same. The couplets you buy may not be suitable for your door, may not be to your taste, and may not inspire you to make progress. It is better to write your own books. If a unit and a village pay attention to cultivating one or two experts in writing couplets, our nation's couplet culture will be another rising era.
I also witnessed such a couplet:
Welcome to the Spring Festival with good luck
All wishes come true.
The horizontal criticism is: The future is bright.
This is not a couplet. It is just three pleasant words casually put together, which is totally irrelevant, neither even nor right. Is it sold wrong? Did you buy it wrong? Or did you post it wrong? Anyway, it's wrong. It's so wrong that people wonder. Such a mistake is understandable if it comes from an illiterate family, but it just comes from the door of a department-level cadre's house. It is better not to stick such couplets, so as not to leave them as jokes for future generations.
There are some upside-down couplets, and the horizontal batch is not attached to the couplet, not to mention the horizontal batch is a high generalization and summary of the upper and lower couplets.
In a word, mediocre works and even poor couplets can be seen everywhere, but these are the fly in the ointment of splendid culture.
No matter what things, places, occasions, or not, people feel different. For example, if you use it in the New Year, people will feel that spring is full of flowers and vitality. When you use it when you are newly married, people will feel full of joy and happiness; It was used in the new house, which made people feel lucky and live and work in peace and contentment; Tourist attractions with it, make people feel more charming, picturesque scenery; It was used in mourning, which made people feel comforted in sorrow and thought with virtue. Therefore, its influence among the masses is greater than poetry. It can combine beautiful figure, neat antithesis, sonorous rhyme with calligraphy art and sculpture art, and complement each other forever. If literature and art are compared to a colorful and huge hundred flowers garden and couplet culture, it is a particularly dazzling flower in this garden.