The origin of Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets, also known as "spring stickers" and "door pairs". During the Spring Festival, every household should choose a pair of bright red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year, adding festive atmosphere and pinning people's beautiful expectations for the new year and new life. When the Spring Festival couplets and blessings are posted on the doorstep, it means that the Spring Festival officially kicks off. So do you know the origin of Spring Festival couplets?

The origin of couplets:

It is said that a strange world was recorded in Shan Hai Jing, an ancient myth in China. In the middle of that world, there is a magnificent mountain and a big peach tree covering three thousand miles. On the treetop of this peach tree, there is a golden rooster, which rings every morning to summon ghosts wandering outside at night to return to the ghost domain. The gate of the ghost domain is located in the northeast of peach tree, and there are two gods standing by the door. The names of these two gods are Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If a ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find and catch them, tie them up with a rope made of awn reed, and then send him to feed the tiger, so all ghosts in the world are in awe of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. Since the Zhou Dynasty, people in China have portrayed Shen Tu and Lei Yu with peach trees and hung them at the door to ward off evil spirits.

Later, people simply carved the name of Lei Yu, the God Tea, on the mahogany board, thinking that doing so could also eliminate the distinction between good and evil. Later, this kind of red board was called Fu Tao. This custom lasted for more than 1000 years. In the Five Dynasties, couplets appeared on peach symbols, instead of the names of the great gods with auspicious symbols. At that time, the earliest Spring Festival couplets appeared in China. Later, it was made by Meng Changjun, a master of the later Shu Dynasty. He carved "New Year in Qing Yu, the number of Changchun in the First Festival" on the mahogany board. In this way, the peach symbol was originally used to exorcise ghosts and became the style used by the author to express emotions. This is the beginning of the Spring Festival couplets.

In the Song Dynasty, people wrote couplets on mahogany boards. In the new year, hanging Spring Festival couplets has become more common. Wang Anshi once wrote in January Day: "Firecrackers are one year old, and spring breeze warms Tu Su. Thousands of families always trade new peaches for old ones, reflecting the grand occasion of posting Spring Festival couplets on New Year's Eve. With the appearance of the door god, people gradually transferred Fu Tao's mission of exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters to the door god, and wrote couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness. Therefore, the Spring Festival couplets have evolved into people's good wishes for good luck and good harvest in the coming year. These Spring Festival couplets have the meaning of eliminating evil with peach trees, expressing good wishes and decorating the portal to make it beautiful. Therefore, the appearance of Spring Festival couplets is closely related to peach symbols, so people in ancient times also called Spring Festival couplets peach symbols.

From the Ming Dynasty, the custom of couplets began to be popular among the people, and the names of couplets began to appear at that time. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he liked the lively ostentation and extravagance very much. Therefore, he popularized and pasted peach symbols among the people. He issued an imperial edict, requiring that every household in the city should stick Spring Festival couplets written in red paper on their doorframes before New Year's Eve every year to welcome the Spring Festival.

There was such a story at that time. One year, Zhu Yuanzhang went door to door to check the Spring Festival couplets. Whenever he sees a well-written Spring Festival couplets, he is very happy and full of praise. During the inspection, Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he saw that one family had not posted Spring Festival couplets and asked the reason. The waiter replied that this is a master who is engaged in killing pigs. He is so busy during the New Year that he hasn't had time to ask someone to write it! Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pen and ink, and wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for this family: split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife. After writing, I continued to patrol. After a while, Zhu Yuanzhang passed by here again while patrolling. Seeing that the butcher's family had not posted his Spring Festival couplets, he asked what was going on. The owner of this family respectfully replied that this pair of Spring Festival couplets was written by the emperor himself, and we hung it high in the main hall and burned incense and sacrificed every day. Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy and ordered his entourage to give the family thirty taels of silver.

It can be seen that the naming and promotion of Spring Festival couplets was promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang through administrative orders and imperial edicts. Later, literati regarded writing Spring Festival couplets as a kind of elegant pleasure. Therefore, posting Spring Festival couplets has become a popular social atmosphere, which has been passed down to this day. Until now, almost every household in our country still retains the custom of posting Spring Festival couplets.

Pay attention to posting Spring Festival couplets: 1. The time for posting Spring Festival couplets varies slightly according to local customs. As the saying goes: "Twenty-eight, applique", and in some local folk songs, there is also a saying that "Twenty-nine, paste the unitary (meaning paste the Spring Festival couplets)". There is also a folk myth that Spring Festival couplets are immortals in the sky. When the Spring Festival couplets are torn, they will report to the Jade Emperor the situation of each household, hoping that the gods can bring good luck to the folk families. It is best to stick Spring Festival couplets between 6 am and noon 12 on New Year's Eve, tearing up the old ones, which means breaking bad luck and tearing up the old ones.

2. Distinguish between upper and lower parts

When posting Spring Festival couplets, some people often misplace the upper and lower couplets. The last word is the key to distinguish the upper and lower couplets. According to the rules of meter, the last word of the first couplet must be the end of a tone (three tones and four tones in Mandarin), and the second couplet is the end of a flat tone (one tone and two tones in Mandarin).

When pasting couplets, the first couplet should be pasted on the right, and the second couplet should be pasted on the left, with the right gate as the dividing line. The reason for posting this way is that the straight writing is from right to left, so reading couplets is also from right to left.

3. Blessing words cannot be attached casually.

When posting Spring Festival couplets, some people still like to post the word "Fu", but not all of them have to be posted backwards.

The word "Fu" on the gate must be pasted directly. The word "Fu" on the gate means "Welcome to Fu" and "Accept Fu". The gate is the entrance and exit of the family and a solemn place. The word "fu" posted must be solemn and generous, so it must be posted correctly.

The word "Fu" on the cupboard should be pasted backwards. A cupboard is a place for storing things. The word "Fu" is pasted backwards, indicating that happiness (and wealth) will always come to the home, house and cupboard.

Special circumstances. If there is an accident at home during the year, friends who want to transfer can post their blessings backwards.

The above is my understanding of the origin of Spring Festival couplets. The Spring Festival couplets really appeared in the period of Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang asked every household to post Spring Festival couplets, so the streets and alleys were covered with Spring Festival couplets. Nowadays, during the Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose beautiful red Spring Festival couplets to stick on their doors to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, so as to increase the festive atmosphere.