A study on the culture of Spring Festival couplets

Spring is the first time of the year; the six animals and pigs are the first.

People open the way to wealth; pigs open the door to wealth.

A righteous dog guards the door; a good pig heralds the good years.

Hai is calling for a prosperous age; Hai is considered a good year.

The Heavenly Dog returns to the immortal world; the Pig visits the Gate of Fortune.

The tengu drives away the cold; the precious pig brings warmth to the spring.

The six animals and pigs are treasures; the four seasons of spring are the latest.

The pig brings wealth to the house; the swallow brings prosperity and welcomes the spring.

Spring comes to the house at the time of Haishi; the house is full of joy in the Year of the Pig.

Farmers are happy with hundreds of pigs; everything is new in China.

The jade dog works hard at home; the golden pig makes you rich.

Praise the jade dog for keeping the house; praise the golden pig for getting rich.

Yangchun will bring six good fortunes; the Year of the Pig will bring three more fortunes.

The God of Wealth comes with the year; the pig cubs come through the door.

The dog leads the year of peace; the pig leads the year of prosperity.

Heshun has a hundred blessings and peace. The two words are worth a thousand gold. Hengbiao: Everything is renewed.

Spring is always in a variety of colors and blooms all year round. Hengbi: Welcome the New Year

Spring is full of flowers in the world, and blessings come to the small courtyard in all seasons. Hengpiao: Celebrate the Spring Festival

A hundred generations of time, contemporary times, ancient mountains and rivers, the present new Hengpiao: everything is renewed

Happy to live in a treasured land for thousands of years, and blessings will shine on everything at home. Xing Heng Piao: Welcome the New Year

Every year is smooth sailing and everything goes well. The spring rain moistens all things, red plum blossoms embroider thousands of mountains Hengbiao: full of spring

A clean sweep of old habits, five lectures and four beauties, new trends Hengbiao: bid farewell to the old and welcome the spring

Spring is everywhere in all lakes and seas, thousands of rivers and mountains are full of splendor Hengbiao ：Everything is updated

The years are new in the snow, the mountains and the mountains are beautiful; the red plums announce spring

2. The length of the couplets varies, the short ones are only one or two words; the long ones are It can be up to several hundred words. There are various forms of couplets, including positive pairs, opposing pairs, running-water pairs, joint-ball pairs, and collection-sentence pairs. However, no matter what type of couplet or what form is used, it must have the following characteristics:

1. The number of words must be equal and the sentences must be consistent. Unless the position of a certain word is intentionally left vacant to achieve a certain effect, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be the same, no more, no less.

2. The levels and tones must be consistent and the tones must be harmonious. The traditional custom is "廄 rises and flat falls", that is, the last word of the first line is in the square tone, and the last word of the second line is in the flat tone.

3. The parts of speech should be relative and the positions should be the same. It is generally called "Void to Void, Real to Real", that is, noun to noun, verb to verb, adjective to adjective, quantifier to quantifier, adverb to adverb, and relative words must be in the same position.

4. The content should be relevant and connected from top to bottom. The meanings of the upper and lower lines must be connected to each other, but they cannot be repeated.

In addition, the traditional practice of hanging couplets must be written vertically, from right to left, from top to bottom, and cannot be reversed.

Hengpi, which is closely related to the couplet, can be said to be the title and the center of the couplet. Good horizontal batches can play a finishing touch and complement each other in the couplets.

3.

Spring couplets are also called "door pairs", "spring posts", "couples" and "couples". They are described with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. It is a unique literary form in my country that reflects the background of the times and expresses good wishes. Every Spring Festival, every household, whether in urban or rural areas, selects a red Spring Festival couplet and pastes it on the door to add a festive atmosphere to the festival.

In the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets have been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju’s monograph on Spring Festival couplets, "Three Couples on the Threshold", has a detailed account of the origins of couplets and the characteristics of various works. Discussion. Spring couplets had become a literary and art form at that time.

There are many types of Spring Festival couplets. According to the place of use, they can be divided into door centers, frame pairs, horizontal batches, spring strips, square brackets, etc.

"Door center" is affixed to the upper center of the door panel; "frame pair" is affixed to the left and right door frames; "horizontal strips" are affixed to the crossbar of the door; "spring strips" are affixed to corresponding places according to different contents; "Dojin" is also called "door leaf", which is square and diamond-shaped, and is often attached to furniture and screen walls. Spring couplets originate from Taofu, also known as Taofu. The content is: "New Year's greetings, Jiali Festival Changchun." It was written by Meng He Zengqin, the lord of Later Shu

4. Characteristics and rules of couplets

Xiao De'an

The Spring Festival of Dinghai Year is coming, and people are writing Spring Festival couplets again. As one of the types of couplets, Spring Couplets, while highlighting the word "spring", should not ignore the characteristics and rules of couplets that focus on "confrontation" and "symmetry". Specifically, there are at least the following points that cannot be ignored when writing Spring Festival couplets.

One: the number of words is equal. The number of words in the first couplet and the second couplet must be equal and the form must be neat. Generally speaking, five-character couplets and seven-character couplets are used most frequently.

Second: the same part of speech. The words in the upper couplet and the lower couplet that are opposite to each other in the couplet should have the same part of speech - content words to content words, function words to function words. For example: the sea is wide enough for fish to leap; the sky is high enough for birds to fly.

The words "sea" and "sky" in the upper and lower couplets of this couplet are both nouns, "kuo" and "gao" are both adjectives, "pen" and "ren" are both prepositions, and "fish" and "Bird" is both a noun, and "jump" and "fly" are both verbs.

Third: The syntax is similar. The upper and lower couplets should correspond to each other in structure-parallel versus parallel, subject-predicate versus subject-predicate, verb-object versus verb-object, partial versus partial, etc. For example: the family is in harmony and everything goes smoothly; the country is peaceful and the people are safe.

The words "Jiahe" and "Cathay" in the upper and lower couplets are subject-predicate structure versus subject-predicate structure, and "Bai Shi Shun" and "万民安" are also subject-predicate structure versus subject-predicate structure.

Fourth: Rhythm correspondence. The beats of the upper and lower couplets must be consistent, and the rhythm must be symmetrical, with monosyllables versus monosyllables, double syllables versus double syllables, and multi-syllables versus multiple syllables. For example: Spring comes - Spring Gate - Spring never grows old; Fulin - Blessed Land - Blessings are boundless.

Fifth: The content is relevant. Except for the "ruthless pair", the contents of the first and second lines are mostly related and closely revolve around the theme. For example: pine, bamboo and plum blossoms are three friends in the cold year; peaches, plums, apricots and spring are warm to the whole family.

The contents and meanings revealed by the upper and lower couplets in this couplet complement each other and bring out the best in each other.

Sixth: Harmony between flat and oblique. Pingqi refers to the flat and oblique sounds of Chinese characters. Ancient Chinese tones are divided into four tones: flat, rising, going, and entering. Couplets pay attention to the alternation, relativeness and harmony of levels and obliques. This means that the two opposite characters in the upper and lower couplets cannot both have flat tones or oblique tones. Instead, one should have flat tones and the other has oblique tones, which makes them appear well-proportioned and confusing. The mouth is pleasant to the ear and constitutes the musical beauty of language. Among them, the couplets should be smooth and even, with the last one being the strictest. The pronunciation of the word at the end of the first line must be oblique tone, and the pronunciation of the last word of the second line must be flat tone. For example: as time goes by, people live longer; spring fills the universe with blessings.

However, because the number of words in the couplets, the length of the sentences, the structure, rhythm and other forms are flexible and diverse, if the specific circumstances are not distinguished, any Spring Festival couplets or other types of couplets will not be the same. The rhythm of the metrical poem is applied to the tone, but it may not always fit the tone. It should be noted that couplets are both literati literature and folk literature, elegant literature and popular literature. For folk lovers of couplets, it is not advisable to emphasize the rhythm of the couplets too rigidly. It is best to differentiate between situations, severity and severity, and vary from person to person. Not to mention the common people, even famous scholars in the academic world wrote couplets, "If there are strange sentences, they will be ordinary, oblique, false, true or false", "Don't harm the meaning with your words" (what Lin Daiyu said to Xiangling when talking about poetry in "A Dream of Red Mansions"). But this does not mean that the rhythm of the couplet can be ignored. "There is a difference between leniency and strictness, and it varies from person to person" is based on the premise of "lenience and strictness have rules". "Confrontation" is, after all, the biggest feature of the couplet, and it is also the bottom line of the couplet's rhythm. This bottom line cannot be discarded and should be maintained! Spring couplets, also known as "door pairs" and "spring posts", are a type of couplets. They are named because they are posted during the Spring Festival. Where did the Spring Festival couplets come from? There is such a story in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". Legend has it that there is a beautiful Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea, also known as Taodu Mountain. There is a large peach tree on the mountain that stretches for three thousand miles. There is a golden rooster on the top of the tree, which announces the sunrise.

After the Tang Dynasty, it was gradually changed to Yuchi Gong and Qin Shubao. Legend has it that Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, launched the Xuanwumen Coup, killed his brothers, forced his father, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan, to abdicate and become the Supreme Emperor, and ascended the throne himself. After that, because Wei Zheng dreamed of killing the old dragon of Jinghe River, he seemed to hear ghosts throwing bricks and tiles into the house every night, making strange noises. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had no choice but to tell the officials about the incident. General Qin Shubao, the founding hero of the Tang Dynasty, volunteered to stay vigil at the gate of the palace to drive out ghosts, and Wei Chigong, another founding general of the Tang Dynasty, was also willing to accompany him during the vigil. That night, the two men wore armor and held weapons in their hands, and stayed at the door of the palace all night. Tang Taizong really had a good sleep. Over the next few days, Tang Taizong gradually recovered. He couldn't bear to let the two generals keep vigil anymore, so he ordered people to draw the majestic images of the two generals and paste the portraits on the door. This incident spread, and Yu Chigong and Qin Shubao were gradually regarded as door gods.

The Taofu evolved into the Spring Festival couplets. It is said that during the Five Dynasties, Meng Chang, the leader of the Later Shu Kingdom among the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, on New Year's Eve in 964 AD. He asked the bachelor Xin Yinxun to write two auspicious words on the Taofu board to celebrate the new year. He didn't like Xin Yinxun's works because he was not good at writing, so he took up his own pen and wrote:

New Year's greetings

Jiajie Hao Changchun

This is the earliest Spring Festival couplet in our country. Since then, literati and scholars regarded writing Spring Festival couplets as an elegant thing, and the custom of writing Spring Festival couplets has gradually spread. By the Song Dynasty, posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival had become a gentry custom. Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri", "Thousands of households are as bright as the sun, always replacing old talismans with new peaches." The Song Dynasty's notes also record the literati's preference for writing Spring Festival couplets. For example, Zhang Bangji's "Mozhuang Manlu" states that Su Dongpo visited Wang Wenfu in Huangzhou when he was about to die, and saw that he was good at curing peach charms, so he wrote a couplet on it and said: "The gate is big enough to accommodate thousands of riders, and the hall is deep without knowing it." "In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the famous calligrapher and painter Zhao Songxue visited Yingyue Tower in Yangzhou. The owner asked Zhao Songxue for a Spring Festival couplet. Zhao Songxue wrote: "Three thousand guests in the spring breeze, the first floor of Yangzhou in the bright moon." The contents were not the same as those in the restaurant. The owner was overjoyed and rewarded him with a purple gold pot. Spring couplets like those written by Zhao Songxue have been regarded as social gifts.

Posting Spring Festival couplets during the New Year is the most traditional folk custom in China. After the New Year, every household will have beautifully printed Spring Festival couplets expressing good wishes posted on their doors. This year, some Spring Festival couplets are posted on the door of some houses. But there has been a change. These Spring Festival couplets are not printed, but handwritten. Looking at these handwritten Spring Festival couplets can not help but evoke memories of the past.

Spring couplets were first called "Taofu" and were only called Spring Festival couplets after the Ming Dynasty. Spring couplets are a unique literary form that embodies the life interests of the Chinese people. It began in the Five Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has a history of more than a thousand years. "New Year's greetings, festivals number Changchun" are the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. Later, with the popularity of Spring Festival couplets, some Spring Festival couplets were also written on bamboo boards and wooden boards.