Time: about 1046 years ago.
It is said that Meng Changjun, the monarch of Shu after the Five Dynasties, was a monarch who liked to be unconventional. On New Year's Eve at the end of 964, he had a whim to let a bachelor named Xin write two sentences on the mahogany board and hang them on the door frame of his living room as peach symbols. These two sentences are "Qing Yu in the New Year, Changchun in the First Festival". Enjoy the legacy of the previous generation in the new year. The second sentence is to the effect that festivals indicate that spring is always there. Since then, the form and content of Fu Tao have changed, not only by replacing "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" with parallel couplets, but also by expanding the connotation of Fu Tao, not only to ward off evil spirits and disasters, but also by adding the content of praying and wishing. This became the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China.
Introduction of couplets:
Couplets, one of the traditional cultures of the Han nationality, also known as couplets or couplets, are antithetical sentences written on paper, cloth or carved on bamboo, wood and columns. The antithesis of couplets is neat and even, which is a unique artistic form of Chinese language. According to legend, couplets originated from Meng Changjun, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. It is a treasure of Han traditional culture in China.
Couplets, also known as antithesis, antithesis, spring stickers, Spring Festival couplets, couplets, Taofu and couplets (named after the pillars hanging in halls and houses in ancient times), are a kind of dual literature, which originated from Taofu. It is a antithetical sentence written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. It is a unique art form of Chinese, concise and profound, neat and even, with the same number of words and the same structure.
According to legend, couplets originated from Meng Changjun, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. They are the traditional cultural treasures of the Han nationality. Spring Festival couplets are called Spring Festival couplets, funeral couplets are called elegiac couplets, and happy couplets are called violet couplets. Couplets are a national style written by using the characteristics of Chinese characters, and generally do not need to rhyme (only the antitheses in the rhyme need to rhyme). Couplets can be roughly divided into poetry couplets and prose couplets.
With the rise of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, prose couplets were excluded. Prose couplets are generally informal, straightforward, and do not avoid repetition. They do not overemphasize the equivalence of parts of speech without losing duality.
Spring Festival couplets have a long history. It is said that they originated from Meng Changjun, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. He inscribed on the peach symbol on the door of the dormitory: "New Year's Eve, Qing Yu, the number of festivals, Changchun", which means the word "inscribed peach symbol" (see "Shu Lang"). This is the earliest couplet in China and the first Spring Festival couplet.
As a custom, couplets are an important part of Han traditional culture. In 2005, the custom of couplets was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in the State Council, China. The custom of couplets is passed down and spread in Chinese-speaking areas and ethnic groups with cultural origins of Chinese characters, which is of great value for promoting Chinese culture.
Historical exploration
Couplets are antithetical literature. The parallel symmetry of this language is similar to the so-called "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments" in philosophy. In other words, everything in the world is divided into two halves of yin and yang symmetry, and the essence of thinking is extremely similar. Therefore, we can say that the philosophical origin and deep-seated national cultural psychology of China's couplets are binary concepts of Yin and Yang. The dualism of yin and yang is the basis of China's ancient world outlook. It is the way of thinking of ancient people in China to grasp things with the binary concept of Yin and Yang. This idea of duality of yin and yang has a long history. I Ching
Custom of Spring Festival couplets
The divinatory symbols in Yi Zhuan are composed of yin and yang, and Yi Zhuan says, "One yin and one yang is the Tao." Laozi also said: "Everything is negative and holds Yang, and it is harmonious to rush." ("Lao Zi" Chapter 42. Xunzi thought: "Heaven and earth combine to create everything, and Yin and Yang combine to change." (Xunzi's Book of Rites) Huang Lao's silk book says: "The way of heaven and earth is left and right, yin and yang." This concept of Yin and Yang is not only an abstract concept, but also widely penetrated into the understanding and explanation of everything in nature and human society in ancient China.
The preface to the Book of Changes says, "Where there is heaven and earth, everything is men and women, men and women, couples, fathers and sons, princes and ministers, ups and downs, and manners." In Yi Zhuan, various concrete things are used to symbolize Yin and Yang. Yin represents Kun, earth, female, woman, son, minister, abdomen, lower, north, wind, water, lustre, flowers, black and white, suppleness and so on. Correspondingly, Yang represents dryness, sky, male, husband, father, monarch, head, up, south, thunder, fire, mountain, fruit, red and yellow, vigor and so on. This ubiquitous concept of yin and yang has penetrated into the subconscious of the Han people, thus becoming the collective unconscious of the nation. The concept of yin and yang is manifested in national psychology, and one of the important characteristics is the persistence and infatuation with things in the form of "two" and "pair". The format of couplets is strict and the part of speech is relative. Traditional couplets are connected in form, with the same content, harmonious tone and rigorous antithesis.
Language root-seeking
The most essential feature of a standard couplet is "antithesis". When expressed orally, it is verbal confrontation, and when written, it is verbal confrontation. What is the meaning of language duality? Usually we talk about four items: equal number of words, relative parts of speech, flat and oblique contradictions, and the same syntax. The most important of the four items is that the number of words is equal and the contradiction is flat and oblique. The number of words here is equal, which is different from the "number of words" in English. Its essence is syllable equality. That is, one syllable corresponds to one syllable. In English, the words "car" and "jeep" are equal in number, but not in syllable. In Chinese, "truck" and "jeep" are equal in number and syllable. The reason why Chinese can achieve "syllable" equality is because Chinese is a language with monosyllabic as the basic unit. Syllables, morphemes and characters are trinity. Every syllable in Chinese has a strong independence and has a certain length and tone. In ancient times, there were four tones: flat, rising, falling and entering. Now there are four tones: rising, falling, rising and falling, which are divided into flat and falling. Flat confrontation is a contradiction. In this way, between morphemes in Chinese (that is, between words), we can establish an antagonistic relationship with equal words or even equal words. In English, even if the name and concept of things can be relative, the number and part of speech of words can be relative, and the sentence patterns of two sentences can be relative, but their syllables are different in length, weak in independence, free to spell and have no tone, so they can't be relative. Couplets are mostly written in words, often written, hung or engraved on other buildings or objects. So the second level of antithesis of couplets is the so-called literal opposition. The relativity of words means that couplets are both language art and decorative art. As decorative art couplets, it requires neatness and symmetry, giving people a harmonious and symmetrical aesthetic feeling. Chinese characters just have the conditions to achieve neat symmetry. They exist in the form of individual squares, square and uniform, occupying an equal spatial position in writing. It is readable and visible. Its square configuration has both aesthetic principles and mechanical requirements. Whether writing horizontally or vertically, it can be dense, neat and beautiful. English, on the other hand, is a phonetic symbol, and each word has different lengths, and it is only phonetic but not ideographic, and it is even more invisible. It can only be arranged horizontally, not vertically, and it is impossible to achieve true symmetry in form. In the following interview, two Chinese and English antitheses with the same meaning are compared to further explain why only Chinese has a real antithesis, while English and other pinyin characters do not.
Couplets originated in the Qin Dynasty and were called Fu Tao in ancient times. With regard to the earliest couplets in China, Mr. Tan Chan-xue wrote in the fourth issue of Knowledge of Literature and History 199 1 that the earliest couplets in China appeared in the Tang Dynasty. According to the Dunhuang suicide note with volume number Stein 06 10 unearthed from the Tibetan scriptures cave in Mogao grottoes:
Years old: Sanyang began to spread, and the four orders began to open.
Fuqing is new at the beginning, and Shouluyan.
Also: Sanyang returns to the beginning, and the fourth order reaches Kyrgyzstan.
Yan Fu's new day celebrates that life has no boundaries.
Beginning of spring Day: When the copper turbidity began to celebrate the mat, the jade method began to adjust the yang.
In addition to three disasters, Five Blessingg has suffered countless disasters throughout the ages.
Baoji can ward off evil spirits, and Yan Rui can ward off evil spirits.
Beginning of spring □ (Home), Fukiko, Sun Chang.
Also: Sanyang began to spread, and Simeng (Meng) began to open.
Zhao Zhixin, the author of Sound Spectrum, clearly pointed out: "Two sentences are connected, and four sentences are unique (sentences), which began in the Six Dynasties, and the Yuan (original) is not close." Wang Fuzhi said that couplets originated from regular poems, just like "beheading and gouging out feet, harming people's physiology"-Qing history words.
Couplets originated from the symmetry of characters and sounds in China, and appeared before the Zhou Dynasty. With the development of papermaking and calligraphy, couplets have become an independent style.
Couplets are short in form and concise in words, which is not only a vivid artistic expression, but also an excellent cultural heritage. The antithetical couplets were developed on the basis of ancient Fu Tao and antithesis. The earliest couplets in China appeared more than 1000 years ago. According to historical records, on the eve of the Spring Festival in the twenty-seventh year of Zheng Guang (AD 9 * * *), Meng Chang, the master of Houshu, was good at learning couplets on weekdays, so when the new year came, he suddenly made a decree and asked ministers to write antithetical sentences on the "Fu Tao Board" to test his talents. Ministers each wrote a picture and waited patiently for the inspection. Meng Chang looked at them one by one, but he was not satisfied. So he personally put pen to paper and wrote "Qing Yu in the New Year" on the "Fu Tao Board"; The festival number is Changchun. " This is the earliest Spring Festival couplets written by China. The exquisite format of couplets not only has a long history and traditional habits, but also has a unified and fixed format on the basis of widespread use by the masses. From the literary point of view, it is a special style that is more valued and strict in China folk cultural heritage. From the format, it closely combines the characteristics of real life, including two doorframes and a lintel road, and accordingly consists of three parts: the first part, also called sentences; Bottom line: the second sentence, also called antithesis; Banner: Also called horizontal batch or horizontal row. The upper and lower couplets are the main part of couplets, which are both wonderful and indispensable. In addition, in the practical application of couplets, no matter how long the upper and lower couplets are, there are generally no punctuation marks, which is also very particular about the format. But there are exceptions