Why do you want to post Spring Festival couplets?

Let's talk about why we posted Spring Festival couplets in 2008. Judging from the development history of Spring Festival couplets, we can simply say that the past was to ward off evil spirits, and now it is to pray for blessings and add a festive atmosphere to the festival.

It is a traditional custom of the Chinese nation to paste couplets during the Spring Festival. Spring Festival couplets are also called "appropriate", "spring stickers", "couplets" and "couplets". They use neat, dual, concise and delicate words to describe the background of the times and express good wishes, which is a unique literary form in China. During the Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose several pairs of red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on their doors. A pair of Spring Festival couplets is like an invitation from every household to spring, and it is like an invitation from spring to every household. It not only increases the festive atmosphere of the festival, but also expresses people's ardent expectations for a beautiful vision and a happy life; Moreover, from the couplets with different styles and rich contents, we can feel the profoundness of Chinese culture, simple rural style and rich flavor of the year, and feel the joy of the Spring Festival, which is a happy, harmonious and jubilant festival.

Spring Festival couplets originated from ancient peach symbols. In the Qing Dynasty, Yanjing Shi Sui Ji recorded: "Spring Festival couplets are also Fu Tao." At that time, "Fu Tao" was a rectangular red wooden board hanging on both sides of the gate, with the names of "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" written on it to ward off evil spirits.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, some people wrote couplets on the palace peach symbols. According to "History of Shu Family in Song Dynasty", Meng Chang, a great master of the later Shu Dynasty, once wrote a poem on the mahogany board, and the author was Bachelor Xin. "Write a cloud:' Come to Qing Yu in the Spring Festival, celebrate the festive season' on the pretence that it is not working." This is the first Spring Festival couplets recorded in China's state-owned written records. Until the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were also called "Fu Tao", and there was a saying in Wang Anshi's poem that "thousands of households always change new peaches for old ones". Later, due to the mass production of paper, peach symbols gradually changed from mahogany boards to paper, which was called "spring stickers", and this was the beginning of pasting Spring Festival couplets.

The word "Spring Festival couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. The popularity of Spring Festival couplets prevailed in the Ming Dynasty. According to Miscellanies of Mao Yunlou, "Spring Festival couplets began in Ming Taizu. Jinling, the imperial capital, suddenly issued a decree on New Year's Eve, and officials and scholars must put a pair of Spring Festival couplets on their doors. Mao Wei walked out of sight and thought he was laughing. " It is said that one year before New Year's Eve, he issued an imperial edict requiring every household in Jinling to stick Spring Festival couplets written in red paper on their doorframes to welcome the Spring Festival. On the morning of New Year's Day, Zhu Yuanzhang made a tour incognito and 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. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he saw a family that didn't stick Spring Festival couplets. He asked why. The attendant replied, "This is a master who is engaged in killing and cutting pigs. He was so busy during the New Year that he didn't have time to ask someone to write. " Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, 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 will continue to patrol. After a period of time, Zhu Yuanzhang passed by here again when he returned to the palace. He saw that the butcher's house had not posted his Spring Festival couplets, so he asked what was going on. The host respectfully replied, "This pair of Spring Festival couplets was written by the emperor himself. We hang high in nave and burn incense every day. " Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy, so he ordered his attendants to give the family thirty taels of silver. In addition, he also wrote Spring Festival couplets for princes and ministers, and gave them to Xu Da, the king of Zhongshan. The contents are as follows: "Breaking barbarians, merit comes first in ancient and modern times; When you go out, you will go to chinese odyssey. " The couplet given to Tao An is: "The national dynasty is unparalleled, and the article from Hanyuan is the first." It can be seen that the naming and promotion of "Spring Festival couplets" is due to the emperor's personal practice, the love of literati and the spread of the masses, and the Spring Festival couplets have been handed down as a custom.