Compilation method and creative training of couplets

This is an article, the original text is as follows:

Abstract: Compiling couplets is the comprehensive application of language meaning, grammar and phonology, and it is also the training of ideological coherence. There are five ways to compile couplets: echo method, collection method, extension method, mosaic method and revision method. The training of creating couplets should start with basic couplets, find interesting sentences from ordinary reading and apply them directly to communication and entertainment, from making couplets to middle school couplets; You can make some friends, learn about joint art and exchange experiences, and you can also participate in some joint activities and joint community activities. We should lay a solid foundation of language and writing, learn a little about phonology, exegesis, grammar, rhetoric and logic, read more literary works, and improve the appreciation and expression of couplet art.

The previous Chinese education emphasized reading and reciting, memorizing poems and articles. In addition, there is a special "opposing class". The so-called antithesis is to recite "Li Weng Dui Yun", and antithesis is a couplet, also called a couplet. In 1930s, the entrance examination of Tsinghua University College of Literature had to be paired. Mr. Chen of the College of Literature said in "Talking with Mr. Liu about Chinese" that "the form is simple and the meaning is rich, which is closely related to the characteristics of China's national languages" and "it seems that there is no way to match too much". The reasons cited by Chen Yinque are four factors: phonology, grammar, language storage and ideological order, especially ideological order. "Every excellent pair must have three stages."

Couplets are not only a kind of literary creation, but also a comprehensive application of language meaning, grammar and phonology, and it is also the cultivation and training of ideological coherence. Philosophically speaking, couplets are the understanding, implementation and deduction of the law of unity of opposites, and the dialectics of "one divides into two" and "one combines into one".

There are certain methods and skills in compiling couplets, and training should be strengthened in creating couplets.

The compiling method of 1 couplets

There are five kinds of couplets, which are described as follows.

1. 1 echo method

The echo method is borrowed from Ouyang Xiu's Zuiwengting Ji, in which the former is called and the latter should be. Echo method is the most common method of composing couplets. People are in the upper part, and you are in the lower part; You do the first half, others do the second half. In the past, it was a pleasure for poets to get to know elegant people, making sentences in pairs, echoing each other, like asking questions and answering questions, like a chorus, so as to show their literary talent and initiative, exchange ideas and emotions, and become a great pleasure to make friends. But there are also those who are not sure for a while, so they are shelved and handed down. One year, one month, someone came out at once, which became a much-told story in Liantan.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the poet Huang Tingjian went down the river from Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and prepared to visit Nanjing. The boatman made the first couplet and asked him to make the second couplet, but he couldn't do it, which has been passed down to this day. By June 1993 1 1, Zhang, who was working in Yalong Bay, Sanya City, Hainan Province, had come out:

Driving a boat, swinging two oars, hanging three or four old sails, taking five or six tourists, crossing Qilitan to Bali Lake, only ten miles from Jiujiang;

Take ten sacks, buy nine suckling pigs, walk eight or seven miles, rest for six or five times, pass through Sitang Village, arrive at Tangsan Town, and there is one stop from Ertang.

Liu Zeng, a famous person in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote a couplet in his own name to seek justice for himself. More than three hundred years later, during War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, US President Wallace visited China and was immediately told:

Liu is like a willow tree.

Wallace came to China.

In the Qing Dynasty, a celebrity from the south of the Yangtze River visited Wangjianglou, the former residence of Xue Tao, a poetess in the Tang Dynasty, and accidentally got a couplet from her emotional department. He has lived in Chengdu for half a year and has been thinking hard, but he has never got a couplet. For more than a hundred years, thousands of tourists have come to Wangjiang Tower, and none of them are right. 1974, a poetry meeting of workers, peasants and soldiers was held in Wangjianglou, but a young man made a bottom line:

Wangjiang River is located on Wangjiang Tower, and Jianglou River is eternal.

On the stage of poetry competition, poetry is unique, and so is poetry.

The meaning is acceptable, but not acceptable: "Liu" is a noun, a verb, and "Cai" is only a noun; The word "world" is silent, so we should keep it quiet.

The above three examples show that couplets come from life, and both sentences and dialogues come from life, which gives people enlightenment and hints; Behind closed doors, thinking hard, eager for success, often can not get. This is a ... Second, "accumulate over time, occasionally get it" is also the law of couplet creation. Long-term accumulation is the accumulation of social life and life experience; Occasionally, an event, a person or a scene appears, which suddenly leads to inspiration, ideas gush out and problems are solved.

The above three couplets are all fishy. The first is the numeral couplet, the second is the palindrome couplet, and the third is the palindrome couplet, which is very difficult and difficult to match.

Mr. Feng Zikai, a painter and writer, wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for Wuhan's neighbors at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, which was based on a famous saying of Gu, was practical and expressed the people's voice:

Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world;

The victory of the Anti-Japanese War is known to all women and children.

For beginners, it is best to find an easy sentence first, and then think about it. Don't fall into the dead end of odd connection and unique connection at once.

1.2 concentration method

Set sentences are a way for old literati to write poems, fill words and couplets. It refers to intercepting poems, words, songs, fu, articles and even ready-made sentences from predecessors' inscriptions, inscriptions and scriptures, and splicing them into a work, which is standardized and seamless, just like your own creation. This can be said to be editing work and artistic re-creation. This method of compiling couplets is called assembly method.

Mr Zhang Zhongxing said that collecting sentences means laziness. Ask several ancient people to donate one sentence each and put it together to express their meaning. Bing Xin said that sentence composition is like a child playing a jigsaw puzzle, which is fun to put together, but the result of playing also feels that there is a "new work", which seems to be more refined and meaningful than the original. Zhang Zhongxing's theory of laziness and Bing Xin's theory of happiness are based on his attitude and mood. I think using Jina method to make couplets is more like being a matchmaker, bridging the gap and tying this sentence in this article with another sentence in that article. The matchmaker has a thorough understanding of both sides, and the word meaning, number of words, structure and level are all well matched, which makes Qin and he have a good relationship. According to the archaeological inquiry in Song Dynasty, a good set of sentences is "Machine is as real as man" and "Follow nature, not far-fetched at first, and often better than poets".

Please look at how well some of the following antitheses are matched and appropriate:

Reading breaks ten thousand volumes (Du Fu)

Put pen to paper (Li Bai)

Little Phoenix is clearer than old Phoenix (Li Shangyin)

The flowers this year are redder than last year (Ouyang Xiu)

I never get tired of reading old books.

Wisdom can really forget everything (Su Shi's sentence collection)

A hundred years of trouble is boring.

Jiuzhou is furious and thunderous (setting Gong Zizhen's sentence)

May all beings have no suffering.

Don't seek happiness for yourself (Li Shutong's Hua Yan Jing)

Remember people's advantages and forget people's mistakes; ("Shangshu")

Pay without losing virtue, return without losing effort. (Zuo zhuan)

Wash your heart quickly, prevent problems and say "quit" (easy time)

There is nothing wrong with obeying the law and discipline, and there is nothing wrong with practicing etiquette (Warring States Policy)

The benevolent does not worry, the knower does not doubt, and the brave does not worry;

See what it is, what it is, it is safe. (Set of "Four Books" Sentences)

Learning is close to knowledge, doing is close to benevolence, and knowing shame is close to courage;

Wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be bent. (Set of "Four Books" Sentences)

The world is at peace, civil servants don't love money, and military officers don't hesitate to die; (Yue Fei)

Gankun is upright, the river yue is below, and the sun star is above. (Wen Tianxiang)

I have read a lot of poems, songs and poems, some of which are memorized by heart, and the rhyme and rhyme of the poems are well integrated, so that the sentences can be combined. Liang Qichao's wife was ill in hospital, and Liang went to accompany her. After his wife fell asleep, he had nothing to do, so he recalled famous poems in Song Dynasty, integrated several couplets, wrote them down and distributed them to friends. Among them, for Xu Zhimo is:

Near the water, it can be clear and clear, from the four bridges, called the cross-ring garden;

This means that I have been flying all my life, playing the flute under the begonia flowers until dawn.

The first sentence of the first part is taken from Wu Wenying's High Balcony, the second sentence is taken from Jiang Baishi's Dianjiang Lip, and the third sentence is taken from Chen Xinong's Autumn Collection. The first sentence of the second couplet is taken from Xin Qiji's Qingpingle, the second sentence is taken from Hong Pingzhai's Eye-catching, and the third sentence is taken from Chen Jianzhai's Linjiangxian. This set of couplets is in line with Xu Zhimo's style of being a man and writing poems. In the second couplet, Xu Zhimo accompanied Tagore to visit the West Lake and wrote a poem all night under the begonia.

1.3 extension method

Extension method is to continue and expand the existing couplets and make them become new couplets.

Two butterflies fight-two butterflies fight between flowers-two butterflies fight between flying flowers.

A seagull is upstream of the water and a seagull is upstream of the water.

Santasi-the first three towers of Santasi

Wutai Mountain-Wutai Mountain has five floors.

Figure shaking-people standing on the stone bridge, figure shaking, figure does not go with the running water;

Guest dreams are always there-guest dreams are always in other places, and guest dreams always come to the old place.

The first link is to extend forward, so that "butterfly" and "seagull" have a background, a dynamic and lifelike; The second couplet extends backward, making the "temple" and "mountain" distinct and distinct, with a cyclical charm and overlapping aesthetic feeling; The third part is a double extension of forward and backward, which vividly and meticulously depicts "characters" and "guest dreams" and is poetic.

The new couplets obtained by extension method are longer than the original ones, but they are not deliberately lengthened. Don't gild the lily, add branches and leaves, pile up lists, add branches and leaves, but create on the basis of the original couplets, enrich its content and glow its brilliance.

Once upon a time, there was a corrupt official who put up a pair of couplets in front of the yamen to decorate the facade, but someone extended it that night:

Love the people like children-love the people like children, gold and silver are my children;

Law enforcement is like a mountain-law enforcement is like a mountain, and there are hills before it.

This is an extension of the fighting weapon, exposing the true face of corrupt officials.

1.4 splicing method

Starting with the name of the performance object, it is transferred and interpreted into couplets, and the name of the performance object is like a gem embedded in couplets. This method is called mosaic, and the couplet made up in this way is called embedded name couplet or embedded word couplet.

The most widely circulated inscribed couplets scolded Yuan Shikai during the Republic of China, with the words "President of the Republic of China" embedded:

The people are still there, the country is still there, and there is no distinction between north and south;

In a word, it is not a thing.

In the late Qing dynasty, a pair of embedded couplets mocking Zeng Guofan and Zuo was much more subtle and tortuous:

Ji Zi dares to speak high, which is quite different from my opinion;

The vassal made a mistake and asked him what the economy had done.

In Zeng Guofan's tone, the first part accuses Zuo of daring to disagree with me and being aggressive; The bottom allied retorted in a left tone, calling Zeng Guofan an important minister of the country and making mistakes in the country and the people. The word "Left" is inscribed with "Left", "Lucky" and "Gao" and inscribed with "Zeng", "Guo" and "Fan", which breaks up the name and disrupts the order. Moreover, one uses a name, the other uses a word, and "Zeng" is a variant. At first glance, you can't find it.

On Hong Chengchou's 60th birthday in the late Ming Dynasty, one of his disciples, Pima Dai Xiao, sent a pair of couplets, asking Hong Chengchou to hang them at once. He opened it on see, it is a pair of couplets embedded with Chinese characters:

Historical records are true.

Hong En betrayed the enemy without reporting.

Shi Kefa, a famous anti-Qing fighter, and Hong Chengchou, the anti-Qing fighter, are in sharp contrast. The homonym of "domain formation" is "domain formation".

There are a pair of embedded names, which means something else:

Easy to gossip about Yangzhou, cause Yangzhou gossip, easy!

Chairman of Lin Zichao Government, Chairman of He Zeng Government, Lin Zi is detached.

In the first part, reporter Yi's name and his book Yangzhou Gossip were inlaid twice, and in the second part, Lin Zichao's name was inlaid twice. This couplet satirizes the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek. Its beauty lies in: the gossip about Yangzhou has become "Yangzhou gossip", and the "chairman of the national government" has become "chairman of the national government", which is meaningful; "Jun" and "Zi" are both honorifics for people, while "Yi Jun" and "Lin Zi" can be used as titles independently, and it is just right to use the last words "Zuo" and "Chao" to evaluate people and things.

Huang's study is called Zhou Hezhai. He wrote a couplet from the book and embedded the word "Zhou He" in the couplet:

Zhou has learned a lesson from the past to the present.

It's cleverly designed.

The couplets posted before the Mid-Autumn Festival in the grocery store are inlaid with the word "moon cake":

The moon is really bright overhead.

The cake is delicious. Come here.

Xi An Beilin winemaker's name "Beilin Restaurant" is embedded in the couplet:

The door is near the forest of steles.

Kling restaurant has a strange smell.

The advantage of mosaic method lies in grasping the key points, going straight to the theme, developing ideas around the inlaid words, choosing words and making sentences, compiling couplets in a short time and winning applause. Moreover, it is a distinctive "customized production" with "patents" and is not used for other purposes. Therefore, embedded couplets are widely used in communication and entertainment. The difficulty of mosaic method is that the mosaic words should be natural and harmonious like the flowers supported by green leaves in couplets, and not as dazzling and ugly as patchwork on rags. Obviously it was intentional, but it didn't show any traces of carving. This is the key point that should be grasped when using mosaic method.

1.5 correction method

There are three ways to modify. One is to find the mistakes of other people's couplets and modify them into correct couplets; Second, there is nothing wrong with other people's couplets, but they want to put it another way to make it more playful, so they are modified and become another "version"; Third, the predecessors' couplets were good and correct, but they were all the products of different feelings and scenes in different places at that time, which did not meet the requirements of this situation here and now, or did not meet their own thoughts, so they were revised and became new couplets.

A friend told me that he had a playful couplet: "Resort/Fax Machine", which was heartless. I appreciate it and spread it for him. Later, I told the students about couplets, and I took this as an example. However, as soon as the rule I mentioned is verified, at least the second word and the third word of the three-character couplet should be flush, and the word "village" is flat. No, it must be modified:

Holiday village anti-counterfeiting ban

Fax machine fax machine

"Anti-counterfeiting Office" is the abbreviation of the Office for Combating Counterfeit and Inferior Commodities. As everyone knows, I just picked it up and made the first one.

Once upon a time, roadside inns often posted couplets to attract customers, but a shopkeeper changed:

Stay before it's too late, and vote before it's too late.

The crow will see the sky early, and the crow will see thirty-three early.

The figures at the end of the couplet are puzzling. In fact, "twenty-eight" is a simplification of "twenty-eight stars", which implies the meaning of "accommodation"; "Thirty-three" is a simplification of "thirty-three days", which means "heaven".

Gong Zizhen, a poet in the late Qing Dynasty, once saw a pair of door couplets made by a peddler and a pawn in a mule shop. The level is too low, suggest to the shopkeeper to change the couplet:

Left hand leads a swift horse, left hand leads a swift horse.

The predecessor of Wanli cattle with right hand should be nine square meters high.

Nine Faces High, a work of nine faces. It's not animals, it's people. People in the Spring and Autumn Period are kind to horses. Recommended by Bole, he asked for a swift horse for Qin Mugong, but he could observe the nature of horses, regardless of color or sex. Bole called him "get the essence and forget the coarseness, but forget the outside". Gong Zizhen's revised bottom couplet doesn't seem to be correct and neat at first glance, because we look at it from the perspective of modern Chinese and carefully consider it with the word-for-word format of ancient Chinese. He is very correct.

There is a premise in the amendment law that you should be familiar with the rules of couplets, have high appreciation ability, be able to identify, make judgments, point out where the mistakes are and how to correct them. Only by recognizing mistakes can we correct them. The modified method is slightly better than the original author, and it can "diagnose prescriptions". Ignorance makes mistakes, mistakes are corrected, and correction is mistakes, which will make jokes.

The above five kinds of couplets are based, relied on, relied on and used for reference, and they are not completely independent creations. It is much more difficult to create independently. However, since there are soul couplets, it is logical to make them and create them independently, and they should be realized as soon as possible. Independent creation of couplets should also be gradual, from easy to difficult, from shallow to deep, from rough to refined, and perfect day by day.

2 couplet creation training

The training of creating couplets can put forward the following three points.

2. 1 Starting from basic joint exercises

One-character, two-character, three-character and four-character couplets are the foundation and can be called basic couplets.

No matter how long the couplet is, it is composed of one, two, three and four words. Five-character couplets can be composed of one or four words, or four or one word, or two or three words, or three or two words; A pair of six-character couplets is three pairs of two-character couplets or two pairs of three-character couplets, or two-character couplets or four-character couplets, or four-character couplets or two-character couplets. Seven-character couplets are the most common couplets, but they can also be divided into one, two, three and four-character couplets. Please look at the following example:

Go boldly to comb the willows in the spring breeze/go boldly/come/comb the willows

It rains at night, making it impossible to moisten flowers. Rain at night/Keep people/Go/Moisten flowers (Zheng Banqiao)

Exotic spring scenery in Wulingyuan/exotic spring scenery

Hanshan Temple Midnight Bell Hanshan Temple/Midnight Bell (Mochou Lake wins chess building)

Father-son three-character guest, father-son three-character guest

Eight great masters' ancient prose/eight great masters (Susan Temple in Meizhou)

Full house, 3000 guests, full house /3000 guests.

One Sword Frost and Cold Forty States One Sword Frost/Cold/Forty States (Former Residence of Sun Yat-sen)

Read through human feelings and know the thickness of paper. Read through human feelings/knowledge/paper thickness

Tapping Shilu/Jueshanping (Forest)

Crazy enough for the world to kill/crazy enough for the world to kill.

The drunken son of heaven can't shout drunk/the son of heaven can't shout (Nanjing Taibai Loulian)

Have I read a book/Yes/No, I have.

You can't say anything to anyone.

500 years of bottomless caves /500 years/bottomless caves

Peach blossoms don't bloom for 3,000 years/Peach blossoms don't bloom for 3,000 years (Xiantao Cave, East Lake, Shaoxing)

Water flows out/out/away from the jasper ring.

People walk on the back of the black dragon/People walk on the back of the black dragon (Zhao Zhouqiao)

People like Taishan Beidou are people like Taishan Beidou.

The weather is clear and cloudless. Sunny weather (Hanwengong Temple)

Why not choose five-character conjunctions as basic conjunctions? Because there are few five-character words in Chinese, such as "Marxism" and "Mao Zedong Thought", they can also be broken down into two or three words. For example, the couplet above, "I haven't read/can't talk to people" can be broken down into "I haven't read" and "can't talk to people"; "From the Jasper Ring/On the Black Dragon's Back" can be divided into "From/Jasper Ring/Middle" and "On the Black Dragon's Back/Up". Why use four-character couplets as basic couplets? Because it is a form with fewer words, but it can be divided into four points at a time or even two times. Lv Shuxiang said, "Four syllables always seem to be the favorite phonetic passage for China users." "The most popular idiom is four words", which conforms to the aesthetic requirements of "putting my spouse first" and "taking four words as positive" in China culture. The structure of "four-character case" is flexible and changeable, and almost any grammatical relationship can be configured to meet the needs of structural changes, and most of them are flat and flat, which embodies the unique sense of rhythm and musical beauty of Chinese tones.

We should practice one, two, three and four-character couplets more.

One-character couplet In ancient Chinese, many words were words, and in modern Chinese, many words were kept. One-word couplet practice: "look" to "listen", up and down; "do" vs "say", up and down; "Things" equals "people".

There are many disyllables in modern Chinese, and many words in ancient Chinese have become disyllables in modern Chinese. The practice of two-character couplets: "doing things" is relative to "being a man" and relative to the general; "Living in the world" doesn't matter "being a man"; "Vernacular" is opposite to "classical Chinese" and is opposite to mediocrity. If you have two characters, you can also practice double-tone to double-tone, double-tone to double-tone, and double-tone to double-tone, such as "military police" to "people", double-tone to double-tone, and even flat tones.

Many new nouns in three-character couplets are three characters, which can be learned and practiced from daily life: "jeans" is a noun to "jacket", and clothes are to clothes, even; "cooler" and "thermos cup" are nouns to nouns, utensils to utensils, and even.

You can find entries in the idiom dictionary to practice four-character couplets. For example, "when the melon is ripe, it will come naturally", and the structure is the same, flat and light, flat and light, and stable; "Bole Xiangma" and "Ye Gong Long Hao" have the same structure, and the two words are even.

2.2 In general reading, find out the sentences that you find interesting.

For example, if you buy a book published by a literary publishing house, you can use the "literary publishing house" as the upper part and the lower part, and it is not difficult to identify a "commercial publishing house". But generally speaking, the second, fourth and fifth words must be parallel, and now the second word is parallel, which is not acceptable. Make some adjustments and change the first part to "Wenxin Publishing House", which is a good couplet:

—|—|| ———||

Literature and art publishing house Wenxin publishing house

Commercial press

—||—— —||——

Another example is the phrase "there is no savior in the world" in the Internationale, which is very good. You can try to make a couplet, and it is not difficult to see that "there are no enthusiastic people in the world", and the words two, four, six and seven are even numbers with the same meaning; After careful examination, we found the problem. The first part has the word "world" and the second part has the word "people", but it is misplaced and has to be adjusted, which can be changed to "human beings are helpless":

||||||| |||||||

There is no savior. There is no savior.

There are no enthusiastic people in the world, and there is no help in the world.

——|—|—— ——|—|——

You should learn to self-check, that is, make grammatical analysis, part-of-speech recognition and level appraisal of your own couplets, so as to ensure that the couplets you send conform to the general laws of couplets and are qualified products.

2.3 directly applied to communication and entertainment, learning couplets in the creation of couplets.

This is a practical exercise. Before the Spring Festival, boldly write Spring Festival couplets for yourself and your loved ones; Relatives and friends have the celebration of marriage, housewarming, further education and promotion, and bravely send congratulations; The old man I knew passed away and was sent to elegiac couplet devoutly. If these couplets are sent out, published in public, and tested, feedback will be obtained: those that are well done will spread, those that are not well done will criticize and be easy to improve.

In addition, make some friends, learn about joint art and exchange experiences; If you are lucky enough to win the prize, it is an incentive to participate in some group activities; You can also participate in couplet activities. Now, from the county to the province to the whole country, there are couplets associations, as well as some organs, schools and couplets associations. If you attend, you will have more opportunities for study, communication and further study.

Writing skills are very important in creating couplets. To learn a little grammar, rhetoric, logic, phonology and exegesis, anyone who is not sure must look up reference books; Pay attention to couplets when reading books and newspapers. If there are couplets in the article, you can try to figure it out and appreciate it.

Finally, it must be pointed out that couplets are closely related to old-style poems. Learning old-style poems while learning couplets is conducive to improving artistic appreciation and artistic expression.

Author: Luo Weiyang Original: "Journal of Beijing Institute of Printing" 2002 No.4 finishing production: Pearl House of Little People Valley