A brief history of Spring Festival couplets

When the Spring Festival comes, thousands of families put red couplets printed with auspicious couplets on their doors or gates to set off the atmosphere of the New Year, which is also an ancient heritage.

During the Warring States period, people in the Central Plains hung "peach stalks" by the door, which was called the "ancestor" of Spring Festival couplets. The so-called peach stalk is a puppet carved with peach wood. According to the cloud, it can exorcise evil spirits and keep peace. Later, it gradually became a "symbol of peach". Fu Tao, also known as the keeper, has the words "Shen Tu and Lei Yu" engraved on a mahogany board. According to legend, these two gods can subdue evil spirits. "

"Celebrate the New Year and Spring in Qing Yu" was written by Meng Chang, the late emperor of Shu during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and is now regarded as the earliest Spring Festival couplets.

The name "Spring Festival couplets" was born in Ming Dynasty. It is reported that after Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing, he issued an imperial edict on New Year's Eve that "a public official and a scholar's family must attach a pair of Spring Festival couplets", requiring every household to attach Spring Festival couplets, travel in disguise and watch for fun. Zhu Yuanzhang also personally presented a pair of couplets to Tao An, a civil servant, saying, "There is no one like you in the country, and the article from Hanyuan is the first." At the initiative of the rulers, since then, Spring Festival couplets have become popular among the people.

(Note: Because couplets originated from Spring Festival couplets. )

Various couplets

Spring Festival couplets are the most widely used couplets in festivals, and most of them are hung or pasted on both sides of the gate. In some places, Spring Festival couplets are also called "spring stickers", "door stickers", "opposite doors", "couplets" and "waving spring".

Marriage couplets: namely marriage couplets. It contains many meanings, such as wishing the newlyweds happiness and a long life together.

Birthday couplets: Birthday couplets. Many of them include longevity and praise for virtue. Some people make their own birthday couplets to sum up their lives or describe life and Kangning.

Congratulatory couplets: Couplets given for the happy events of relatives and friends often have the meaning of congratulations and wishes.

Inscription couplets: refers to couplets inscribed for friends, juniors, subordinates or landscapes, which have the meaning of encouragement and praise.

Parallelism couplet: A couplet composed of antitheses in China's ancient prose and poetry, also known as poetry parallelism couplet.

Interesting pair: refers to the game pen and ink, which is interesting but elegant and popular, and the content is generally lively and humorous.

Couplets on the stage: In the old days, couplets were often posted on both sides of the stage, or to publicize the characteristics and functions of the play, or to guide the audience to watch the play, or to reflect the joyful atmosphere of the theater. Some stage couplets are also played by the theme, which has profound implications.

Scenic couplets: refers to scenic couplets. This kind of couplets, some write scenery and chant things, some express feelings, some comment on people's history, and some borrow scenery to express their feelings. Its styles are diverse, witty and delicate, lively and bold, or solemn and deep.

Oral couplets: refers to oral creation, oral couplets and vernacular couplets. Its characteristics are popular, colloquial or interesting. There are quite a few oral couplets with wits and courage.

Satire couplet: This is a couplet used to satirize someone or something. Its language is often sharp and pungent, penetrating and thought-provoking.

Motto couplet: This is a couplet of aphorisms and aphorisms. Or for self-encouragement, or for others, some are hung in nave, and some are placed on the right.

Elegiac couplet: A couplet specially written to mourn the dead. Some are made for the dead, and some are made for themselves. The content is either eulogizing, using the topic, or doing the opposite, satirizing or exposing the dead.

Industry couplets: refers to couplets dedicated to various industries, such as commerce and service industries.

Top 10 in China Long-term League.

The couplet of Daguanlou in Kunming is called "the first couplet in the world" because it first appeared and was also introduced (Liang Zhangju's couplet Conghua, 1840). Its "length" is actually only the "most" in the Qing dynasty, and now it is found that there are a lot longer than it. And according to the number of words, at least introduce the "Top Ten" of Changlian.

1. In Qing Dynasty, Zhong Zubang (Yun Fang with the word fēn) proposed the Linjiang Tower Link in Jiangjin, Sichuan, with the word 16 12. The author wrote it in prison. It is said that the relevant departments in Jiangjin will hang up.

2. Today's Hua Wuzan Great Wall couplets, 1000 words. The Association won the National Commemorative Award of 1985 Spring Festival.

3. Zhong Zubang (word) of Qing Dynasty is 60 years old with 890 words. The author wrote it on 1906, when he was in prison.

4. Today, Li Yunqing inscribed the title of "Tianxin Pavilion in Changsha" with 456 words, which was written by 1983 to rebuild Tianxin Pavilion.

Today, the topic written by Ma Lianming is Shanmen, Qian Shan, Liaoning, with 426 words.

6. Wan Youlian, 4 12, whose author is unknown, may be from the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

7. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong wrote a couplet entitled "ChristianRandPhillips Temple of Qu Yuan in Junshan, Dongting, Hunan", with 400 words. Appreciation of couplets is quoted from Ji √ n √ q √ e, which was originally missing the word 16, and was later supplemented by Shi Shuqing according to Couplet Miscellanies.

8. Li Shanji, a Qing Dynasty man, wrote an inscription of 394 words for "Lotus in Qingcheng Mountain, Sichuan". The author was born in Tongjiang, Sichuan, and wrote in 19 10.

9. Holding Kunming "12 1" Martyrs Union, 392 words. Unknown author, written in 1945.

10. In the Qing Dynasty, Pan Binglie wrote a pair of Yellow Crane Tower couplets in Wuchang, with 350 words.

These are the "top ten", not the "top ten". Ranked in the top ten, the reliability is still relatively high, and it is inevitable that there will be regrets of "leaving beads" when going down. According to the data, the number of Kunming Daguanlou 180 long couplets will be around 50.

Seventeen kinds of couplets

1. Example 1: "This wood was collected from Chaishan; Because of the fire, there is a lot of smoke at night. " "This wood" is combined into "firewood"; "Mountain and mountain" are combined into "out"; "Fire" became "smoke"; "Night" has become "a lot". Example 2: "Young girl Ni Jia; Engage in bows, Zhang Fu, and high talents. " Example 3: "Zhang Longgong, riding a strange horse, one-on-one hit; Plant heavy wood, plow cattle, and ten mouths are fields. " Example 4: "Hu Pi, Mr. E Pofan; Ge Gui is wrong, Jiangnan women's shoes are crooked. " "Tiger fish" and "stone skin" are the words "fan" and "broken", while "elegant" and "incorrect" are the words "shoes" and "crooked". Example 5: "The freezing rain showers the window at two o'clock in the east and three o'clock in the west; Chop the guests with seven knives and eight knives. "

2. homophonic. Example 1: "You get lotus root (even) because of lotus (what);" There are apricots (fortunately) and no plums (media). " Example 2: "I am a monk from other places; Embroidered in front of the Beauty Hall (scholar). " Example 3: "2345; Six seven eight nine. " Horizontal batch: North and South. The first couplet lacks "one", and "clothes" is the homonym of "one", that is, lack of clothes; The second couplet lacks "ten", and "food" is the homonym of "ten", that is, eat less. Horizontal criticism is meaningless.

3. palindrome. Example 1: "The wind sends flowers to the ground, and the rain moistens the spring trees." On the other hand, it is: "Spring rain brings green trees, and red fragrant flowers are everywhere to supply air." Example 2: "Liu Ruliu; Wallace came to China. " Example 3: "Linglong Yunshan Yun Qi Show; The mountains and rivers are beautiful. "

4. rhymes. Words with the same or similar pronunciation are next to each other. Example 1: "Tianxin Pavilion, the pigeon dropped from the pavilion, but the pigeon flew into the pavilion and stopped flying;" Land and water continents, continents stop boats, and boats are not feasible. " Example 2: "Sister-in-law sweeps firewood and calls Uncle Shu; Aunt picked up a broken bucket and called it an iron ring. " Example 3: "Wu Beilu stays alone; Xixi chicken crows together. "

5. Homophony. Example: "The stars in the sky, the wages in the ground, people-centered, have different meanings; There are geese in the clouds, geese in front of the eaves, and hedgehogs. " Example 2: "Hungry chickens steal rice, and children fight; The summer mouse cools the beam and the guest coughs. "

6. The same radical. Example 1: "Xiangjiang River is full of tears; Sigh and choke. " Example 2: Liu Tang in the Swallow Lock Pool; Gunzhen tower "

7. Numbers. Example 1: "Two businessmen in a single boat, three, four, five, six sailors, seven or eight wind tents, ten miles down Jiujiang;" Shiliyun, Murraya, and No.8765, although they have gone the old road for four or three years, they are only two days better than one year. " Example 2: "One leaf is alone, sitting on two or three poets, crossing six beaches and seven bays with four oars and five sails, but unfortunately it is ten minutes late;" Ten years of cold window, 98 academy, abandoning secular desires, studying hard the Five Classics and Four Books, and taking exams three times and twice. I must win today! "According to legend, it was written by Su Dongpo and two schoolmates when they took the exam. Example 3: "Gan Bagua, Kun Bagua, 8864 Gua, Gua Gan Kun has been decided; There are nine voices of love, nine voices of phoenix, nine voices of 998 1, and the voices of husband and wife and singing. "

8. compound words. One or more of the same words appear many times in the upper and lower couplets. Example: "Where is the justice of pigs, dogs and turtles?" The fish in the meat room and mahjong room are sweet, but the outside is bitter. "

9. overlap. Example 1: "ups and downs, cold and warm, self-knowledge, looking everywhere; Yingying, Yanyan, flowers, mosaics, Ye Qingqing, evening and morning. " Example 2: "Smile in and out, everyone is satisfied; Pick a good-looking color and everything is satisfactory. "

10. sharp words. Add words to the original couplets to change the original meaning. Example: "Until today, there has been no double happiness; Last night it never rains but it pours. "

1 1. Tibetan. Names of people, things and places are all hidden in couplets. Example: During the rule of the Northern Warlords, after Cao Kun paid for the election of the president, Zhang Taiyan wrote such a couplet: "The people remain the same, the country remains the same, how can we divide the north and the south?" In a word, on the whole, it is nothing. This couplet cleverly hides that "the Republic of China is divided into north and south, and the president is not something."

12. Overlapping words have different pronunciations. Example 1: "The sea goes down; The cloud is long, long, long. " Example 2: "Long, long, long, long; Good, good, good. "

13. Reverse push. Example 1: "the guests of the nature house are actually guests from heaven;" People have passed the Buddha in the Big Buddha Temple. " Example 2: "Wuxi Xishan Wuxi; The Yellow River is nested in the Yellow River. "

14. Stupid link. During a private visit, Gan Long pointed to the tower and showed it to a farmer who was hoeing the ground: "This solitary tower has seven floors, four squares and eight octagons." The farmer waved and left. This wave is the bottom line: "two hands shake five fingers and three fingers are short." Su Dongpo and his good friend Fo Yin are boating on the Yangtze River. Su Dongpo pointed to the left bank, smiling without a word. There is a rhubarb dog wolfing down food. Fo Yin suddenly realized that he immediately threw the big cattail leaf fan engraved with Su Dongpo's poems into the water. In this way, a pair of puns and dumb couplets was completed: "Dogs are gnawing at bones by the river (monks); Poems of flowing water Dongpo (corpse). "

15. According to the requirements of couplets, the famous sentences in previous poems are combined into new couplets. Example: "There is no ear confusion; Le Shu eliminates worries. " From the collection of sentences in Liu Yuxi's Humble Room Ming and Tao Yuanming's Homecoming Poetry.

16. Change the word. In ancient times, a landlord and his son each bought a "Jinshi" with money, so his wife and daughter-in-law were all named "Madam", so a couplet was posted in front of the door: "Father Jinshi, son Jinshi, father and son Jinshi; Wife, wife and daughter-in-law, wife and daughter-in-law are all ladies. " The poor and middle peasants hated it so much that they changed a few strokes on the couplet at night, which became: "Father goes to the grave, son goes to the grave, father and son go to the grave together;" Wife loses her husband, daughter-in-law loses her husband, and both wife and daughter lose their husbands. "

17. Serial. On the birthday of a landlord, a rich man posted a couplet: "Life is not as good as Nanshan, the mountains are not old, the old people live long, have plenty of food and clothing, and have delicious food." He ranks among the three, and Taiwan Province enjoys splendor. The distinguished guests should have come long ago. It is also reasonable and logical to come. " A farmer received the second couplet: "Lucky as the East China Sea, the sky is vast, an old man, a man with an animal heart. What an old bastard, he will die eventually. He ended up in a bad end, and he has been unable to fight. He regrets it. "

Five kinds of couplets

Like other literary works, couplets have their own different styles. Due to the differences in the author's disposition, personality, temperament, self-cultivation and emotion, it will inevitably lead to differences in style, tolerance, posture, charm, spirit, charm and taste. There are five types:

1. Bold expression lies in exaggerated words, bold content, grand spirit and unrestrained. If there is a pair of couplets that write "Tiger": "Yun Fei sword dances thousands of miles; Eye electroacoustic Lei Zhen Wanfang. "

2. Graceful and restrained style is expressed in euphemistic words, which has a gentle and tortuous feeling without losing the original intention. It is often used as a metaphor, such as: "Three spring flowers are full of fragrance into the sea; In August, Tao came to build mountains with water. "

3. Romance is manifested in the poetic style of couplets, full of fantasy, deliberately "exaggerated" and exaggerated to enhance the reader's impression. Such as: "touch the strings and feel the wind and rain on the seat;" Oh, Cheng Shi, you should know that ghosts and gods are surprised outside the window. " Another example: "thousands of feet water curtain, no one can roll it by hand in ancient times;" A bright moon mirror, Gankun Hejiang practiced hard. "

This simple style is manifested in plain language, blunt writing and plain understanding. Give people a sense of straightness, simplicity and stability. Such as: "Don't let the spring and autumn pass; It is the hardest thing for an old friend. "

5. Humor is a kind of style, which is manifested in humorous and meaningful language. Such as: "Rats, regardless of size, are old; Turtles have male surnames and female surnames. " Another example: "the mother duck has no shoes to wash her feet;" The cock has a bun and doesn't comb his hair. "

The year number of the emperor is embedded in the couplet.

During the reign of Emperor Wenzong of Qing Dynasty (Xianfeng), there was a birthday banquet. The six dynasties, Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng, numbered the seven years of the present and the previous six dynasties respectively, made a pair of couplets and wrote: "Shun Tianxin, Kang, De, Gan Jian and Jia Huipu. The governance in the universe, the political achievements of Xi, the awe-inspiring in the DPRK, the Longping in the wild, the five-color Qingyun, the brilliance of the stars, the light of the sun and the moon, and the light of the imperial capital. "

In Chinese couplets, it is rare to embed the year number in the first sentence and the second sentence respectively. This couplet is truly unique, with refined language, rigorous antithesis, neat deduction and proper words. According to legend, Xiao was dismissed for personal misconduct, and gained the appreciation of literate Sect for making this assignment, thus restoring his reputation.

Tibetan Mystery Association

Riddle couplets mainly have the following types:

1. Implicit method: hide the meaning of the answer in the couplet, for example: "Be fair and just; Cutting the wall can steal a ray of light. " Every sentence has been given the name of the romance of the Three Kingdoms. The answers are: Fa Zheng and Kong Ming.

2. Tibetan method: the strokes and structures of characters are cleverly hidden in conjunctions, such as: "Two rows stand on the side; Flat boats cross the river. " Answer: Hui. This crossword puzzle is full of fun, and it is unanimously recognized by the mysterious world as a typical masterpiece of Tibetan crossword puzzles.

3. The method of combining words and dividing words: the strokes and parts of the words in couplets are increased or decreased, and they are combined or decomposed respectively, such as "If you don't do anything, you are not guilty; It was all because of a slip of the tongue that hurt me. " The answer of the first couplet is "four" and the answer of the second couplet is "five".

4. metaphor: use the characteristics of things to compare the answers. For example, when a business opened in the old days, a scholar wrote a congratulatory letter: "Cock carp female pork; Fungus and yellow flowers are fermented. " Literally, this couplet doesn't say anything auspicious like "Congratulations on getting rich", but the six kinds of food listed in the couplet are known to the people as "hair things", which means "opening a big business" for this store, which is wonderful!

Xie houlian

There is a strange couplet similar to two-part allegorical sayings, and the last word of each couplet is omitted or missing. Hide the meaning by shrinking the foot and hiding the tail, or hide the original intention of the joint, so that readers can understand the hidden meaning. This kind of couplet is also called "hidden couplet".

According to legend, Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, once worked hard to train talents. Once, a small hotel mixed water to sell wine. Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Wen, a famous scholar, formed an alliance as "a friendship between gentlemen is as light as water", while Xu Dui formed an alliance with the words "water" and "wine" as "the meaning of drunkenness is not in wine". In the 1950s, Hong Kong movie star Mochow committed suicide and Yi wrote an elegy: "Let's die together; How many can you ask? " The upper and lower couplets intentionally left out the word "mourning", which not only cut Mochow's name, but also implied deep condolences. The ancients made a couplet to laugh at a quack Ji Sheng: "It is not necessarily a disaster; Have you ever died? " The last word (also the name of a quack) in the idioms of "Good luck" and "Coming back to life" stops, and the literal words are extremely ironic. This kind of couplet often adopts famous sentences in ancient poetry articles.

Some of them are slightly different from the above, not in the form of definite sentences. For example, in the old days, people in a certain place gave a corrupt official nicknamed "Disgruntled" a pair of birthday couplets: "One two three four five six seven; Filial piety, loyalty, courtesy and sincerity. " It's hard to know what's inside at first glance, but chew it a little. Claiming to be absolute, the original method is also a submerged tail method. The first part lacks "eight" and the second part lacks "shame", which means "the tortoise is shameless"

Another kind of couplet after the break adopts the method of intentional function words, which makes people feel that "no words are better than words" According to legend, Li Dongyang, a poet of the Ming Dynasty, was brilliant as a child. He once flew a kite with his partner, and the kite string was accidentally broken and fell into a member's yard. Li Dongyang boldly went to the hospital to fly a kite. The teacher wants Li to correct the class, and only when he corrects it will he be returned. The first sentence of the official's trip was: "There are six or seven boys, so they are as cunning as you." Li Dongyang thought for a moment and replied, "There are two thousand stones outside, which are nothing compared with the male ones." . This deliberately empty word can be used as "cheap" or "greedy", depending on whether the member returns the kite.

Another way is to put aside the original intention and let people think about the true meaning of speculation. Some of these conjunctions are slightly riddled with holes. Guo Moruo's "Memoirs of a Teenager" records that when he was studying in Jiading Middle School in Sichuan, Dean Ding and others once visited the Mountain Wanjing Building and wrote a pair of hanging upstairs, saying, "Six scholars will travel together for one day; Wanjinglou has a long history. " Mr. Wang Lao was extremely angry at this arrogant and arrogant attitude, and changed his mind to say that "the Six Classics scholars only know six things, and Wanjinglou has a notorious reputation for thousands of years". People have seven orifices. Can you describe them as "only six orifices"?

It turned out that I knew nothing about it, but I knew nothing about it. It is ridiculous to be divorced from my original intention and make people understand.

"Continued Word" Couplet

Among the couplets, there is a kind of "continuation" couplet, which has a unique interest.

Jie Jin, a bachelor of Hanlin in Ming Dynasty, wrote a couplet on his door when he was a child: "The door faces a thousand bamboo poles, and the family hides thousands of books." The owner of the bamboo garden opposite was very unhappy and thought, can I let him borrow the scenery of my home?

He ordered his family to cut down a bamboo in the garden. When Jie Jin saw it, he added a sentence under the couplet with a smile: "The door is as short as a thousand bamboo poles, and parents save thousands of books." The owner of the bamboo garden was even more angry and simply had all the bamboo cut down. Jie Jin added another sentence to the couplet: "The door is short of bamboo, but the home has thousands of books." The owner of the bamboo garden can only admire the wizards of Jie Jin.

Ji Xiaolan was a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty. Once, Emperor Qianlong told him as a joke. Gan Long said, "Two dishes of beans." Ji Xiaolan said to him, "One euro of oil." Gan Long changed his mind and said, "What I read is that two butterflies are fighting." Ji Xiaolan replied, "I said-a seagull trip." Gan Long added, "I'm talking about the butterfly fight in the forest." Ji Xiaolan calmly replied, "I was right-a seagull was swimming on the water." Two people can't help laughing.

It is said that there is a teacher who teaches. He is a heavy drinker and often passes on wine. One day, he corrected his disciples. The gentleman said, "Wind." Disciple Right: "Rain." Mr. Wang added three words: "to urge flowers and rain." Disciple then said to him, "Sprinkle wine." Mr. Wang added seven words: "There are flowers and rain in the garden." Disciple said to him, "wine is often spilled on the table." Mr. Wang is very unhappy. Disciple said, "If Mr. Wang doesn't mend his ways, then I will be Mr. Wang's husband."

There was an official in the Qing Dynasty who was greedy for coolness. On the first day of the first month, he posted a pair of Spring Festival couplets: "Love the people like children and enforce the law like mountains." Some people add a line at the bottom of every sentence at night, which becomes: "Love the people like children, and gold and silver are my sons;" Law enforcement is like a mountain, and Qian Shan is backed by mountains! "

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the reformists headed by Kang Youwei advocated political reform, while the die-hards and westernization groups within the feudal ruling class tried their best to obstruct it. On Kang Youwei's birthday, people from all walks of life presented birthday couplets, including one: "The country will die for the sake of old age." The last two words of the couplet are "you" and "Wei", which are Kang Youwei's names. Obviously, the die-hards deliberately insulted them by quoting sentences from The Book of Rites and The Analects of Confucius. Because the word "you" in the original sentence is "you" and the word "Wei" is "thief". Liang Qichao, the great disciple of the Kang family, read four big characters and scribbled them quietly on the side of two couplets, making the Shoulian become: "The country will be loyal when it dies, and people will die when they are old." Everyone was full of praise after reading it.

Regain the fun of "heartless couple"

When making couplets, we must pay attention to the corresponding relationship between words (including part of speech and tone) and meanings. And "heartlessness" only requires the literal antithesis to be neat, regardless of the meaning of the word. The well-known "Peach and Plum Competition for Spring Day in Gaomen, America, Holland and Belgium" is a typical example.

According to legend, "no love for" was created by Zhang Zhidong in Qing Dynasty. One day, Zhang Zhidong invited some friends to drink a poem in Taoranting. A guest on the table asked for the next couplet with his poem "Looking for an axe in a tree". Zhang Zhidong said to him, "It's really irrelevant." Another guest was right about "Xiao He's Three Decisions and Liu's Policy". Although the two lower links and the upper link are in neat confrontation and can have their own logic, the words of the middle link cannot be opposed to the upper link according to the original meaning. This is the uniqueness of a heartless couple. The "tree", "fruit" and "Xiao" in Lianzhong are all vegetation; "Already", "Ran" and "He" are all function words; "Half", "one" and "two" are all numbers; Qiu, Dian and Ce can be escaped as verbs, while Hugh, Bu and Qu are function words. "vertical", "phase" and "an" can also be interpreted as the solution of function words; "Axe", "dry" and "Liu" are ancient weapons. Only in this way can we make different interpretations of each corresponding word in the upper and lower couplets, and can we see the special relationship that seems to be "heartless" but actually "affectionate". Finally, Zhang Zhidong called the drinking contest poem "Taoranting" heartless. One of the guests smiled and said, "If you want to be ruthless, unless your name." Everyone laughed heartily. It turned out that this guest responded to Tao Ranting with "Zhang Zhidong".

Today is the Chinese New Year, and occasionally someone gets a couplet that reads: "Snakes are forbidden to meet the sea at the beginning of the year, and clues will become a forest of laughter." It's just an imitation of predecessors' work, which is not as interesting as the following: a factory plans to introduce computers into the production line, and factory leaders all agree to invite engineer Li as the moderator of the research. However, what is worrying is that Li Yin has been idle for a long time and has developed the habit of playing mahjong. So factory director Zhang found Li to talk to, and when he talked, he wrote a note and sent it, which said two words: "Don't play mahjong with your iron core, go to the computer and choose a good soldier." At that time, Zhang had no intention of making a couplet. After reading it, Li couldn't help laughing and said, "This couplet is so wonderful that I will never forget it." Since then, Li has lived up to expectations and achieved remarkable results. He introduced this couplet to everyone, saying that its writing is "ruthless", but the fact is not only affectionate, but also affectionate.