Couplets, commonly known as pairs, elegantly known as couplets (because they are often used to post, hang, or carve on the door pillars of halls). Contemporary coupletist Lu Weilian defines it as: "Couplet is a union composed of two sets of couplets with related meanings." Among them, the first group is called the upper line, and the second group is called the lower line. Like parallel prose and metrical poetry, couplets are also a unique literary form of Chinese literature in my country. As Dr. Yan Guwen, a famous Chinese sinologist, said, "Couplets are a unique product of Chinese literature." Chinese characters are ideographic characters, commonly known as square characters. They have the characteristics of an independent language with one character, one sound and one meaning (a few variant characters, polyphonic characters, and multiple meanings). This does not deny that in a specific language environment, Chinese characters can only be one character, one sound and one sound. (one meaning), so Chinese literature composed of Chinese characters has a unique beauty of symmetry and uniformity. From the perspective of the use of words, couplets are indeed a wonderful flower blooming on the tree of Chinese literature. It embodies the characteristics of Chinese characters more concentratedly and is an important part of Chinese character culture. As a literary form and cultural phenomenon, couplets basically only exist in the Han cultural circle and have strong national characteristics.
Couplets are a very practical literary form. Whether they are elegant, popular or elegant, they can be posted, hung or carved on the door pillars and halls to create a sense of atmosphere. Create a peaceful, festive, or elegant, solemn atmosphere and style. Therefore, since the creation of couplets, it has been closely related to people's daily life, and has gradually been integrated into Chinese folk customs, becoming an indispensable part of Chinese traditional culture. It is generally believed that the earliest couplets were Spring Festival couplets, which originated from Taofu. From the Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the literary form of couplets has sprouted and gradually developed. However, people usually inscribe a Spring Couplet on the Taofu board on the New Year's Day in 963 AD by Meng Chang, the empress of Shu in the Five Dynasties:
New Year Na Yuqing
Festival Number Changchun
As the beginning of Spring Festival couplets. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, couplets gradually became popular and continue to this day. In short, the strong tradition and practicality are the soil for the survival and development of couplets.
As a unique literary form, couplets are not only highly practical, but also highly artistic. Generally speaking, its literary and artistic style can be summarized as "short and concise". Couplets are often short in length, with the number of words on each side ranging from a few to more than a dozen. Long couplets with hundreds or thousands of words are rare. Because of this, on the one hand, it has very strict metrical requirements and cannot be made up by just two sets of equal numbers of words. If there is no rigorous rhythm, then as a unique literary form, the uniqueness and artistry of couplets will be lost, and its artistic vitality will not last long. Because the most essential artistic feature of couplets is their symmetry, and only strict rhythm can ensure its symmetry. On the other hand, as a small literary genre, its content should be concise and contain as much ideological connotation as possible. In this sense, if a couplet has only form but lacks connotation, it will inevitably become a "word game" and a "little trick." On the other hand, good couplets are known as "poems within poems". In short, the refinement of form and content is another important artistic feature of couplets.
In addition, couplets are also a highly enlightening literary form. Learning to write couplets is of great help to us in learning Chinese language and literature, especially basic knowledge about pronunciation, rhythm, parts of speech, grammar and rhetoric, etc. Appreciating and writing couplets is a good way to learn Chinese.
In short, the cultural and artistic characteristics of couplets can be generally summarized as: nationality, tradition, practicality, symmetry, refinement, enlightenment, etc.
(2)
Couplets are a literary form that pays attention to meter. To appreciate and write couplets, one must understand its most basic metrical requirements. The so-called couplet rhythm (referred to as couplet rhythm) refers to the format and rules of couplets in aspects such as level, part of speech, grammar and rhetoric, as well as writing and posting. Its core is antithesis. The basic rhythm of couplets can be summarized into the following points:
1. The number of words is equal and the content is related.
From the word count point of view, in principle, as long as the number of words in the upper and lower couplets is equal, no matter how many words are used. For example, if the upper and lower couplets have four characters each, it is called a four-character couplet, etc. But in practice, most of them are more than four characters, because Chinese characters generally require more than four characters to form a sentence. From the content point of view, the contents of the upper and lower couplets of a couplet should be related, that is, their meanings should set off or connect each other to achieve opposite or complementary effects. The contents between the upper and lower couplets of most couplets
are mutually reinforcing. This kind of foil either sets off and complements each other from the same angle (the so-called "direct opposition"), or it contrasts and contrasts with each other from the opposite angle (the so-called "opposition"). "Direct opposition" is such as:
The Heart Lotus is Pure
The Sea of ??Nature is Harmonious (Note: The quoted couplets without indicating the author or source are all from this book, the same below.
)
"Objection" such as:
Peace of mind and accumulation of blessings
Want to cause disaster again
There are a few content between the upper and lower couplets It belongs to the relationship of mutual cohesion (the so-called "string pair", or "liquid pair"), that is, the two clauses of the upper and lower lines together form a complex sentence, and there is a kind of coherence, progression, selection and transition in the upper and lower lines. , cause and effect, assumptions, conditions, purposes and other compound relationships. Of course, this mutual connection also sets off each other. For example:
If there was no poisoned mind in the previous life
How could there be any unexpected disaster in this life
Another example:
In addition to sweet, bitter, spicy, salty and sour< /p>
It’s nothing more than firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea
If the contents of the upper and lower couplets are irrelevant, it will make people feel very stiff and funny, and it will not achieve the literary effect that the couplets should have.
Unless it is a special form of couplet, the so-called "ruthless pair". It refers to the fact that the upper and lower couplets are neatly contrasted in form (literally), but irrelevant in content (meaning), thus creating a special effect. For example:
Samsung Brandy
May Huangmei Tian (commonly used couplet)
The flowers in the front yard are beginning to bloom
Your Excellency Mr. Li (commonly used couplet) Couplet)
Gongmen Peach and Plum Festival
France, the Netherlands and Belgium (commonly used couplet)
The tree is half dead and the ax is resting
Sure enough, they are not relevant at all (common couplets)
2. The parts of speech are equivalent, the concepts are equivalent, the structures are consistent, and the rhythms are consistent.
The so-called equivalent parts of speech means that the properties of the words in the upper and lower couplets (strictly speaking, the part of speech of each word) should be as identical or similar as possible. Such as noun to noun, verb to verb, adjective to adjective, conjunction to conjunction, adverb to adverb, etc. For example:
To practice great things and forget about honor and disgrace
The ultimate way is heartless and empty of right and wrong
If you look at each word, "大" and "Zhi", "Rong" and "yes", "humiliation" and "fei" are adjectives, "Xing" and "Tao", "custom" and "emotion" are nouns, "Jue" and "无", "forgetfulness" and "empty" " is a verb. However, in practice, the requirements for function words are relatively loose, and it is generally sufficient to use function words for function words. The requirements for content words are stricter, and different parts of speech generally cannot be compared. However, those content words whose parts of speech are relatively close, or whose parts of speech can be combined, are still allowed to be relative, such as between nouns and pronouns, and certain verbs and adjectives. Of course, if the part of speech is the same, it is a work pair, and if the part of speech is similar or similar, it is a wide pair.
More strictly speaking, not only the parts of speech must be equivalent, but the concepts represented by the words must also be equivalent, that is, they must be as similar or relatively contrasting as possible. This also involves the issue of broad work in couplets. If the two words in the upper and lower lines belong to the same concept, the smaller the category, the more effective the contrast will be, and vice versa. For example: "China" versus "rooster", the same category is things; "xiaori" versus "rooster", it is reduced to a natural object; "grass" versus "rooster", it is reduced to a living thing; When "horse" is compared to "rooster", it is reduced to an animal; when "old duck" is compared to "rooster", it is reduced to birds or even poultry. Furthermore, if the conceptual relationship between the two words in the upper and lower couplets is more contradictory (the so-called "contradictory concepts"), the more effective the contrast will be, such as "being" versus "nothing", "true" versus "false", and "生" The pairs of "death", "material" vs. "spirit", "nature" vs. "society", etc. are work pairs.
The so-called structural compatibility means that the grammatical structures of the upper and lower couplets should be the same or similar, that is, the subject-predicate structure versus the subject-predicate structure, the verb-object structure versus the verb-object structure, the partial structure versus the partial structure, and parallelism. Structure versus parallel structure, etc. For example:
Shengxingyan Buddha Land
The righteous Dharma benefits the world
Both the upper and lower couplets have a subject-predicate-object structure. Among them, "Victory Practice" versus "True Dharma" and "Buddha Land" versus "Human World" are all biased structures. Another example:
The soft-headed wonderful light has a great reputation
The lion has a sharp sword, and the treasure is solemn
"Soft-headed wonderful light" versus "the lion's sharpness" "Sword", both are parallel structures; "famous" versus "treasure solemn", both are subject-predicate structures; "soft head" versus "lion", "miaoguang" versus "sharp sword", "prestige" versus" "Baoxiang", and they are all biased structures.
In addition, the rhythm between the upper and lower lines should be proportional. Couplet writing usually uses two characters (sometimes one or three characters) as a rhythm. Rhythm proportionality means that they should be as synchronized as possible. Such as:
The leakage is gone - fly away - go
The heart is empty - and the first - return
Another example:
With -supernatural power- Support - Zhengfa
Shu - Menglan Pen - Salvation - Kindness
In short, the words and sentences used in the upper and lower couplets should be as equal or proportional as possible in terms of part of speech, grammatical structure and rhythm. , to maintain formal coordination and neatness. However, these requirements can still be relaxed appropriately in practice. In some cases, modifications can be made. For example:
Fifty-three ginseng, visiting good teachers to seek correct wisdom
Hundred cities of smoke and water, practicing compassion and wishing to practice the original intention
Among them, "Fifty" "Three ginseng" and "hundred cities of smoke and water" are two common expressions from the same allusion. From the perspective of part of speech, structure and other formal aspects, strictly speaking, it does not comply with the law of conjunction, but from the content perspective, it is a "meaning pair" and is allowed.
3． Harmonious.
The coordination of level and oblique, in a narrow sense, refers to the two major requirements of the couplet in tone: the relative and alternation of level and oblique. Broadly speaking, it also includes other trivial issues such as sentence and foot arrangement. To clarify these issues, we must first distinguish between flat tones and oblique tones. There are two further classification criteria. In the creation of couplets, the "ancient four tones" are generally used, that is, ancient Chinese divides the tones into four tones: flat, rising, coming, and entering. Except for the flat tones, the rising tones, the rising tones, and the entering tones are all oblique tones. Nowadays, a few people use the "new four tones", that is, modern Chinese divides tones into four tones: Yinping, Yangping, rising tone and falling tone. Among them, Yin Ping and Yang Ping are flat tones, and Shang and Li tones are flat tones. The key to the difference between the two pronunciations lies in the ru tone characters. There are generally rules to follow for the mastering and identification of entering tone characters, so I won’t go into details here. For beginners,
The simplest and easiest way is to use a reference book first. According to the author's personal experience, it is relatively easy to become familiar with Ru Ting characters during use. However, it should be noted that although the above two usages can be used in parallel, they cannot be mixed at the same time in the same couplet.
Now let’s go back to the issue of coordination between levels. The so-called equal to oblique tone means that the tone steps of the upper and lower couplets should be equal to the equal tones and the equal tones should be equal to the equal tones. On the contrary, if the flat tone is opposite to the flat tone, and the oblique tone is opposite to the oblique tone, it is called flat and oblique tone, which is also called homophonic and relative. Foot and rhythm are roughly the same concept. Generally speaking, a rhythm is a foot. Since couplets were born out of metrical poetry, they are basically the same as the antithetical sentences in metrical poetry in terms of level and obliqueness. Moreover, there is also a saying that "one, three, and five are ignored, but two, four, and six are clear" when it comes to the arrangement of musical steps. Because in fact, it is not necessarily required that the entire steps are equal and oblique, but only the position of the steps is required to be oblique and equal. The so-called foot position is the last word of each foot, which is the key sound that determines the nature of the entire foot. Since most of the phonetic steps of Chinese characters are two-character steps, the phonetic steps generally refer to the second, fourth, sixth, etc. characters of each sentence. Therefore, there is a saying that "one, three, and five are ignored, but two, four, and six are clear." For example:
The intersection of joy and sorrow
The two lines of truth and reason (note: the plain tone is expressed by "", the oblique tone is expressed by "", the same below.)
Another example :
The deeds of fire are still there
The body is broken and the spirit is lost.
Among them, one, three, and five are not necessarily equal, and two, four, and six are not necessarily equal. If they are flat and oblique, they belong to a work pair. However, not all the foot positions are in the 246th position, mainly because the format of the couplets is not only based on the antithetical sentence pattern in rhymed poetry, but also has the existence of other formats such as lyrics, music, prose, and leading characters. For example:
Disgusted with the suffering realm of Saha
Promote the Dharma of the Pure Land
View the beautiful women holding excrement in the vase
Sigh that ordinary people are willing to throw themselves into the mud
p>
A straight mind is the foundation of all actions
Greed is the source of all suffering
Study the truth and its meaning diligently
Practice it with all your strength Mahamudra Dharma
Speaking of the relative balance between oblique and oblique, we must mention the footwork of the couplet. Regardless of the length of a couplet, and regardless of whether the penultimate word is in a flat or oblique tone, the first couplet is required to end in a oblique tone, that is, the last word (sentence foot) should be in a oblique tone; the second couplet is required to end in a flat tone. Generally speaking, the first line cannot end with a flat tone and the second line with an oblique tone; it cannot end with the same tone. In addition, for long couplets composed of multiple short sentences, it is also important to note that the footwork of each short sentence cannot be all oblique or flat, but should be staggered.
As for the specifics of this staggering, Arrangements are yet to be determined. However, using "horse hoof rhyme" to write long couplets is a better way of arranging sentences.
The so-called alternation of oblique and oblique, which is opposite to oblique and oblique, is actually two aspects of the same problem. It refers to the sound steps of a sentence itself. oblique and oblique should be used alternately, otherwise oblique and oblique will be replaced. Only the last word (sentence foot) of each sentence does not need to be considered for alternation. For example:
The Buddha's body is far beyond the world's sight
The wonderful Dharma cannot be heard by Xiaozhi
Another example:
Nothing has ever appeared.
Success is achieved by forbearing the heart
There are still some taboos on the issue of flatness, such as "three flat tails" or "three flat tails", taboos of "lone flat" or " "Gu Ze" and so on, we will talk about it later.
Generally speaking, couplets pay attention to the coordination of level and obliqueness, and you must pay attention to obliqueness and obliqueness when writing couplets. If the equal number of words, the equal parts of speech and concepts, and the grammatical structure and rhythm give the couplets aesthetic features such as neatness, rigor, contrast, structure, and rhythm, then the coordination of level and obliqueness gives the couplets phonological beauty. this important aesthetic feature. Of course, sometimes in order not to harm the meaning with words, it can also be accommodated if there is a discrepancy or substitution in certain places.
4. Several taboos.
In addition to the above three basic requirements, there are several metrical taboos in couplets, that is, several situations that should be avoided:
"Three flat tails" or "three square tails" "; "Gu Ping" or "Gu Zhi"; "the same word with the same position" and "the same word with the same position"; "synonymous relative"; and so on.
"Sanpingwei" or "三廄尾" refers to the last three characters in a sentence, all of which are flat or oblique. For example, "If you practice according to the law, you can enter the Tao", if you change "can" to "can", it will become a three-dimensional ending.
Another example is "Sitting on the lotus platform due to deep connections", if "sitting" is changed to "climbing", it becomes three flat tails.
"Gu Ping" or "Gu Ze" means that in a sentence with more than five words, there is only one flat character or only one oblique character. For example, "Speechless is the entry point", if it is changed to "Speechless and the entry point", it is "lonely"; another example is "The light of the heart of the great sun shines all over", if it is changed to "The wisdom light of the great sun shines all over", it is "lonely" ( Exceptions are all square or all squares).
Duplicate or repeated words are allowed in the couplets, such as "things in the world are busy" versus "the world of mortals is rolling", "only those who are awake can hear and understand" versus "sighing is so intoxicating that people don't wake up and don't know". However, "heavy words in the same position" and "heavy words in different positions" should be avoided as much as possible in the couplets. The so-called "heavy words in the same position" means using the same word in the same position relative to each other, such as "Dharma Realm" versus "World", "Enlightenment" versus "Become a Demon". However, some function words ("Zhihuzheye" and the like) with the same position and repeated characters are allowed, such as:
There are fish that slip through the net, there are always in the world
There are no birds that escape from the sky, but there are no birds in the world.
Buddhas observe the reality in caves without dwelling on it
All living beings play in the void without knowing
The so-called "heavy words in different positions" means that the same word appears above and below Connect different locations. For example:
Seeing the emptiness of all dharmas, this body will go straight to the other shore
Thinking that all living beings are equal, there must be my teacher when walking among three people
If you combine the above couplet with " "Zhi transcending the other shore" is changed to "there is no successor", which is the same as the word "you" in the second line of the second line "there must be my teacher". Another example:
...If a potter kneads clay, he can see the fruit in his palm
...If he beats the woodcutter to watch the game, he will enter the locust tree in his dream
p>
If the first line of the first line "seeing the fruit in the palm" is changed to "the palm of the hand observing the fruit", it will be different from the second line of the second line "the woodcutter watching the game" with the word "guan" in the same position. Of course, there is a special "heterotopic and mutual overlap" format that is allowed, such as:
All dharmas are in one mind, and emptiness is not different in color
One mind and all dharmas are in one mind, and form is emptiness
The "one" and "ten thousand", "heart" and "dharma", "empty" and "color" in the couplet are the pattern of "different positions and mutual emphasis".
The so-called "synonymous relative", usually also called "gassho", means that the sentences in the upper and lower couplets that are opposite each other have completely the same meaning, such as "Chixian" vs. "Shenzhou", "Xuri" vs. "Chaoyang", "History" versus "history".
5. Others.
The writing and appreciation of couplets also include some relatively minor rhythms and relatively unique rhetorical methods, such as borrowed pairs, self-parallels, embedded words, palindromes, collections of sentences, as well as horizontal comments and couplets of couplets. Writing and posting formats, etc. Below is a brief introduction to the issues mentioned above one by one.
Borrowing a pair is also called a false pair. This is a method of converting parts of speech into different parts of speech. It means that although the part of speech and the meaning of the word in the sentence are not a pair, but with the help of its other part of speech and meaning, they become Works right. Such as:
Sprinkling stains are commonplace
Seventy years of life are rare (the jaw couplet in Du Fu's Qilu <
"Common" Here it means ordinary and is an adjective, but the ancient "Xun" and "Chang" are units of measurement and are quantifiers. By borrowing this meaning, it is related to the numeral "Seventy" as Gong. Another example is "da yuzhi" versus "those who aspire to the Tao". Among them, the meanings of "yan" and "dao" in the conjunction are as verbs and nouns respectively, but "yan" also has the meaning of a noun. Dao also has the meaning of being a verb, and the two are relatively neat. However, borrowing is not used much in couplets, and it is only used as a last resort when flexibility is needed.
Self-pairing, also known as "self-pairing." "Sentence self-pairing", or "dangsentence pairing" refers to the words and sentences in the couplet. Not only the upper and lower couplets are in opposition, but there are also oppositions in the upper and lower couplets themselves (in the middle of the sentence). This makes the couplets more stable. , which adds to the beauty of contrast. For example, "true and false" versus "end", "true" and "false", "beginning" and "end" are self-pairings in the sentence. Another example is "zhiyu" versus "Xingzhi". , "honor and disgrace" vs. "right and wrong", "little words and great meaning" vs. "wonderful heart of dharma", "supreme" vs. "subtle and profound", "mountain color and stream sound" vs. "morning bell and evening drum", "troubles are Bodhi" vs. "money dust" "Shadow earth", "Like a hammer falling into a well, sharpening a stone pool" and "Zongxian's magic hiding in the sky, magical power entering the sea", etc. Not only are the upper and lower couplets opposite, but there are also self-pairings in the sentences. The use of self-pairing in sentences is widely used in couplets (especially long couplets).
Embedded characters, also called embedded names, refer to embedding specific names (mostly special names such as names of people, places, things, etc.) into a certain position in the couplet. This is a more widely used method. There are many specific methods, no fewer than fifty. Embedded characters can be divided into full embedding and partial embedding. Integral embedding is to embed a name completely without taking it apart, such as <