How to create couplets?

Couplets, commonly known as antithesis, are a wonderful flower of Chinese culture and a unique art form of Chinese. Generally speaking, we refer to two antithetical sentences with the same number of words, even and symmetrical phonology, mutual echo of contents and symmetrical arrangement of forms, which are called couplets. We call the upper sentence the upper part, the lower part the lower part, and the upper and lower parts are United together. Because of its unique form, distinctive language, harmonious phonology, interesting content, far-reaching significance, wide use, up and down correlation, one go, with the charm of poetry, coupled with beautiful calligraphy and eye-catching posting, it has become an art in art. From its birth to the present, Xian Yi, rich or poor, has always been loved by people of all ethnic groups and international friends in China. From emperors and princes to Li people, regardless of nationality, age and wealth, people like to appreciate and use it. It has become a festival activity, a procession and assembly, a wedding funeral, a room to fill the walls, a pavilion to decorate, a passion to express, an ideal to spread culture and a tangible expression.

In the article How to Make Couplets, the editorial department of Literature and History Knowledge of Zhonghua Book Company systematically summarized how to create couplets. As a couplet, it should meet the following rules:

(a) The number of words in the upper and lower parts must be equal, and repeated words cannot be used;

(2) The last sentence of the first part must be written silently, and the last word of the second part must be even;

(3) The sentence patterns of the upper and lower couplets must be consistent (equivalent parts of speech and corresponding structures);

(4) The horizontal lines of the upper and lower couplets should be opposite. Where the upper couplet uses flat sound, the lower couplet must use flat sound, and vice versa (flat: flat sound; Cue, Cue, including three-syllable words);

(5) The upper and lower couplets can have similar or opposite meanings, only one thing can be said, and two things can be said separately.

The antithesis between couplets and regular poems has a relationship of inheritance and evolution, and the flat and even metrical rules of regular poems and the principle of "no matter one, three, five, two, four and six are distinct" are also applicable to couplets. As for the number of words in each couplet, there is no limit, ranging from four words, five words, six words, seven words, eight words and nine words to tens or hundreds of words, as long as there is something to say.

In short, rhymes should be harmonious when writing couplets. The language is concise, in line with the law, and has certain content. Words are not relative, levels and levels are not harmonious, or slogan sentences are divided into two lines, which can't be regarded as couplets.

The above contents can be summarized as "four stresses", that is, "word equivalence, flat pronunciation, word opposition and syntactic symmetry". At the same time, the contents of the upper and lower links should be interrelated, but they should not be identical or repetitive. Similar antitheses are often called "crossing hands".

In the article, the principle that "one, three, and five are distinct, and two, four, and six are also applicable to couplets" means that the first, three, and five words in each sentence of a five-character seven-character poem are not flat, and flat words are used when flat. The second, fourth and sixth words of each sentence must be flat and clear, and cannot be replaced. Because the first, third and fifth words are flat and easy to move, the pronunciation has little influence. If the second, fourth and sixth words are flat and unbalanced, they will be difficult to read, which is a taboo in conventional poetry, used in the creation of couplets, and also a taboo in traditional couplets.

There are always forty or fifty ways to create couplets. They are: overlapping words, repetition, overlapping, thimble, word analysis (divided into split words and combined words), mosaic, addition and subtraction (divided into adding words, adding strokes and subtracting words), repetition, hiding, missing, ambiguity (divided into answering questions, answering questions and not answering questions), rhetorical question and pun. Analogy (divided into imitation and personification), metaphor (divided into simile, metaphor and metonymy), exaggeration, symmetry, transposition, preference, intertextuality, irony, transcendence, search, numbers, position, function words, couplets, punctuation, inverted sentences, puzzles, easy words and simultaneity.

The following are some common methods:

1. Reduplicated words, also known as "repeated words", refer to words composed of two identical words. When people create couplets, they often apply reduplication to the creation of couplets, that is, reduplication. Using overlapping words as couplets can vividly express the artistic conception of couplets, with harmonious pronunciation, clear rhythm and harmonious rhythm, which has the image of expressing feelings, thus enhancing the artistic charm of couplets and obtaining specific expression effects.

Such as: overlapping mountains and winding roads; The tree that comes down high, Ding Ding Dong Dong Quan.

The four adjectives "overlapping, bending, competition and ding-dong" are specially treated by the author. The effect changes greatly, the feeling is clear and the scene is pleasant.

2. thimble method, also known as beading method, takes the last word of the previous sentence or rhythm as the first word of the next sentence or rhythm, so that two syllables or two sentences are connected end to end, resulting in the effect of linking up and down, just like beading into a string. The couplets created by the Supreme Truth Method should be compact and vivid.

Such as: listening to the rain, buildings that live by the rain, listening to the sound of rain, dripping, listening, listening, listening;

Watch the tide, watch the tide pavilion, watch the tide and waves, watch, watch, watch.

This pair of thimbles has both an intra-sentence thimble and an inter-sentence thimble. The word "wonderful use of the first couplet"

Two meanings, "stay" means "stop" and "stay", which combines the fun of listening to the rain and watching the tide with the leap of meaning.

3. Homophony is based on the unique homophony of Chinese characters. Different from homophony, it uses several characters with different glyphs and meanings but the same pronunciation in the same couplet, thus making the couplet have the artistic charm of exquisite combination, strange conception and interesting. This method sounds indistinguishable and looks clear at a glance.

Such as: Tianxin pavilion, the pavilion falls pigeons, and the pigeons fly without flying; Land and water, the mainland stops the ship, the ship can't go to the mainland.

The "Ge" and "Dove" and "Zhou" in this couplet use the same pronunciation and different characters.

Making couplets has the pleasure of repeating cycles.

4. Analogy, according to the needs of feelings, the author deliberately uses people to compare things, or uses things to compare people, or uses A to describe B. This association method is called analogy. Usually, people call the object to be compared the subject and the part to be compared the quasi-body. Using analogy can make couplets more vivid and meaningful. There are two methods of analogy: personification and imitation.

Such as: willow spring breeze handy; Pear blossoms are cold and sad.

The author personifies plants and seasons such as willow, spring breeze, pear and cold food, just as they bring infinite sorrow to the dead like people in the real world.

Red lotus; Cai Feng is very happy to fly together.

The author compares a newlywed couple to "Red Lotus" and "Cai Feng", because Red Lotus and Cai Feng are beautiful and auspicious symbols in people's habitual consciousness, and it is reasonable and people's aesthetic consciousness to compare the newlyweds in the celebration to Red Lotus and Cai Feng.

5. Metaphor, a very important method in rhetoric is metaphor, which can be said to be everywhere, whether in poetry or prose. Its basic meaning is to use familiar and concrete things or phenomena to explain another more complex and abstract things and phenomena in a generalized and vivid way, making them more concrete, vivid and vivid. In the creation of couplets, this rhetorical method is also widely used, which is mainly divided into three forms: simile, metaphor and metonymy.

Such as: learning is like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat; The human heart is like a horse on the plain, it is easier to put it away than to put it away.

The Federation compared "learning" with two specific events: "boating against the current" and "walking on the plain"

The "mind" is two elusive things, which makes learning difficult and the mind easy to indulge, making the abstract image concrete, fuzzy, clear, appropriate metaphor and full of philosophy.

6. Exaggeration, the purpose of which is to highlight the characteristics of something and skillfully exaggerate or reduce it to create a spectacle effect. If used properly, it can get twice the result with half the effort.

Such as: the sky is a star on the chessboard, who dares to play; The local area is pipa road, and the strings are strings, which can be played.

This couplet skillfully grasps the image characteristics of things, makes sudden associations and makes use of topics. The author exaggerates.

At the same time, it is indirect exaggeration to highlight the artistic color of couplets with metaphors.

7. Numbers and quantifiers have special meanings in couplets. The functions of couplets composed of quantifiers mainly include: creating images and artistic conception, increasing the difficulty of antithesis, performing mathematical operations, explaining the combination words of numbers, and constantly embedding natural numbers.

Such as: 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 couples singing.

This couplet is skillfully paired with numbers, the sentence is strangely conceived, the antithesis of the next couplet is appropriate, and the multiplication of numbers is reasonable, natural and reasonable.

In the process of creating couplets, we should not only abide by the above five laws, but also use various methods of creating couplets flexibly. Besides, reading more classical literature books, history books and other books will also improve our ability to create couplets.