The development and origin of couplets

Couplets, also known as antithesis, antithesis, spring stickers, Spring Festival couplets, couplets, Taofu and couplets (named after the pillars hanging in halls and houses in ancient times), are a kind of dual literature, which originated from Taofu. It is a antithetical sentence written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. It is a unique art form of Chinese, concise and profound, neat and even, with the same number of words and the same structure.

Legend has it that couplets originated from Meng Chang, a master of Shu in the Five Dynasties. It is a traditional cultural treasure of the Han nationality. Spring Festival couplets are called Spring Festival couplets, funeral couplets are called elegiac couplets, and wedding couplets are called violet couplets. Couplets are a national style written by using the characteristics of Chinese characters, and generally do not need to rhyme (only the antitheses in the rhyme need to rhyme). Couplets can be roughly divided into poetry couplets and prose couplets.

With the rise of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, prose couplets were excluded. Prose couplets are generally informal, straightforward, and do not avoid repetition. They do not overemphasize the equivalence of parts of speech without losing duality.

Spring Festival couplets have a long history. It is said that they originated from Meng Changjun, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. He wrote an inscription on the peach symbol on the door panel of the dormitory: "When the New Year arrives, the number of festivals will be in Changchun", which means the words "Write the peach symbol" (see Shu Lang). This is the earliest couplet in China and the first Spring Festival couplet.

As a custom, couplets are an important part of Han traditional culture. In 2005, the custom of couplets was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in the State Council, China. The custom of couplets is passed down and spread in Chinese-speaking areas and ethnic groups with cultural origins of Chinese characters, which is of great value for promoting Chinese culture. Couplets are antithetical literature. The parallel symmetry of this language is similar to the so-called "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments" in philosophy. In other words, everything in the world is divided into two halves of yin and yang symmetry, and the essence of thinking is extremely similar. Therefore, we can say that the philosophical origin and deep-seated national cultural psychology of China's couplets are binary concepts of Yin and Yang. The dualism of yin and yang is the basis of China's ancient world outlook. It is the way of thinking of ancient people in China to grasp things with the binary concept of Yin and Yang. This idea of duality of yin and yang has a long history. The divinatory symbols in the Book of Changes are composed of yin and yang, and the Book of Changes says, "One yin and one yang is the Tao." Laozi also said: "Everything is negative and holds Yang, and it is harmonious to rush." ("Lao Zi" Chapter 42. Xunzi thought: "Heaven and earth combine to create everything, and Yin and Yang combine to change." (Xunzi's Book of Rites) Huang Lao's silk book says: "The way of heaven and earth is left and right, yin and yang." This concept of Yin and Yang is not only an abstract concept, but also widely penetrated into the understanding and explanation of everything in nature and human society in ancient China.

The preface to the Book of Changes says, "Where there is heaven and earth, everything is men and women, men and women, couples, fathers and sons, princes and ministers, ups and downs, and manners." In Yi Zhuan, various concrete things are used to symbolize Yin and Yang. Yin represents Kun, earth, female, woman, son, minister, abdomen, lower, north, wind, water, lustre, flowers, black and white, suppleness and so on. Correspondingly, Yang represents dryness, sky, male, husband, father, monarch, head, up, south, thunder, fire, mountain, fruit, red and yellow, vigor and so on. This ubiquitous concept of yin and yang has penetrated into the subconscious of the Han people, thus becoming the collective unconscious of the nation. The concept of yin and yang is manifested in national psychology, and one of its important characteristics is the persistence and infatuation with things in the form of "two" and "pair". The format of couplets is strict and the part of speech is relative. Traditional couplets are connected in form, with the same content, harmonious tone and rigorous antithesis. The most essential feature of a standard couplet is "antithesis". When expressed orally, it is verbal confrontation, and when written, it is verbal confrontation. What is the meaning of language duality? Usually we talk about four items: equal number of words, relative parts of speech, flat and oblique contradictions, and the same syntax. The most important of the four items is that the number of words is equal and the contradiction is flat and oblique. The number of words here is equal, which is different from the "number of words" in English. Its essence is syllable equality. That is, one syllable corresponds to one syllable. In English, the words "car" and "jeep" are equal in number, but not in syllable. In Chinese, "truck" and "jeep" are equal in number and syllable. The reason why Chinese can achieve "syllable" equality is because Chinese is a language with monosyllabic as the basic unit. Syllables, morphemes and characters are trinity. Every syllable in Chinese has a strong independence and has a certain length and tone. In ancient times, there were four tones: flat, rising, falling and entering. Now there are four tones: rising, falling, rising and falling, which are divided into flat and falling. Flat confrontation is a contradiction. In this way, between morphemes in Chinese (that is, between words), we can establish an antagonistic relationship with equal words or even equal words. In English, even if the name and concept of things can be relative, the number and part of speech of words can be relative, and the sentence patterns of two sentences can be relative, but their syllables are different in length, weak in independence, free to spell and have no tone, so they can't be relative. Couplets are mostly written in words, often written, hung or engraved on other buildings or objects. So the second level of antithesis of couplets is the so-called literal opposition. The relativity of words means that couplets are both language art and decorative art. As decorative art couplets, it requires neatness and symmetry, giving people a harmonious and symmetrical aesthetic feeling. Chinese characters just have the conditions to achieve neat symmetry, which exists in the form of individual square, square and neat, occupying equal spatial position in writing. It is readable and visible. Its square configuration has both aesthetic principles and mechanical requirements. Whether writing horizontally or vertically, it can be dense, neat and beautiful. English, on the other hand, is a phonetic symbol, and each word has different lengths, and it is only phonetic but not ideographic, and it is even more invisible. It can only be arranged horizontally, not vertically, and it is impossible to achieve true symmetry in form. In the following interview, two Chinese and English antitheses with the same meaning are compared to further explain why only Chinese has a real antithesis, while English and other pinyin characters do not.

Couplets originated in the Qin Dynasty and were called Fu Tao in ancient times. With regard to the earliest couplets in China, Mr. Tan Chan-xue wrote in the fourth issue of Knowledge of Literature and History 199 1 that the earliest couplets in China appeared in the Tang Dynasty. According to the Dunhuang suicide note with volume number Stein 06 10 unearthed from the Tibetan scriptures cave in Mogao grottoes:

Years old: Sanyang began to spread, and the four orders began to open.

Fuqing is new at the beginning, and Shouluyan.

Also: Sanyang returns to the beginning, and the fourth order reaches Kyrgyzstan.

Yan Fu's new day celebrates that life has no boundaries.

Beginning of spring Day: When the copper turbidity begins to celebrate the banquet, the jade method begins to adjust the yang.

In addition to three disasters, Five Blessingg has suffered countless disasters throughout the ages.

Baoji can ward off evil spirits, and Yan Rui can ward off evil spirits.

Beginning of spring □ (Home), Fukiko, Sun Chang.

Also: Sanyang began to spread, and Simeng (Meng) began to open.

Zhao Zhixin, the author of Sound Spectrum, clearly pointed out: "Two sentences are connected, and four sentences are unique (sentences), which began in the Six Dynasties, and the Yuan (original) is not close." Wang Fuzhi said that couplets originated from regular poems, just like "beheading and gouging out feet, harming people's physiology"-Qing history words.

Couplets originated from the symmetry of characters and sounds in China, and appeared before the Zhou Dynasty. With the development of papermaking and calligraphy, couplets have become an independent style.

Couplets are short in form and concise in words, which is not only a vivid artistic expression, but also an excellent cultural heritage. The antithetical couplets were developed on the basis of ancient Fu Tao and antithesis. The earliest couplets in China appeared more than 1000 years ago. According to historical records, on the eve of the Spring Festival in the twenty-seventh year of Zheng Guang (AD 9 * * *), Meng Chang, the master of Houshu, was good at learning couplets on weekdays, so when the new year came, he suddenly made a decree and asked ministers to write antithetical sentences on the "Fu Tao Board" to test his talents. Ministers each wrote a picture and waited patiently for the inspection. Meng Chang looked at them one by one, but he was not satisfied. So he personally put pen to paper and wrote "Qing Yu in the New Year" on the "Fu Tao Board"; The festival number is Changchun. " This is the earliest Spring Festival couplets written by China. The exquisite format of couplets not only has a long history and traditional habits, but also has a unified and fixed format on the basis of widespread use by the masses. From the literary point of view, it is a special style that is more valued and strict in China folk cultural heritage. In terms of format, it is closely related to the fact that there are two doorframes and a lintel in the middle of real life, and accordingly it consists of three parts: the first part, also called sentences; Bottom line: the second sentence, also called antithesis; Banner: Also called horizontal batch or horizontal row. The upper and lower couplets are the main part of couplets, which are both wonderful and indispensable. In addition, in the practical application of couplets, no matter how long the upper and lower couplets are, there are generally no punctuation marks, which is also very particular about the format. But there are exceptions

From the perspective of literary history, antithetical couplets evolved from antithesis in ancient poems. This development process has roughly gone through three stages. The time span is pre-Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In China's ancient poems, some neat antitheses appeared very early. Several ancient ballads that have been handed down to this day have already seen their origins. Such as "digging wells to drink water, ploughing fields to eat", "doing at sunrise and resting at sunset" and so on. In the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, antithetical sentences became more common. There are already some neat sentences in the hexagrams of the Book of Changes, such as: "Those who can see can be lame." ("Lu" hexagram "63"), "Go to heaven first, then go to the ground." (Ming Yi's "Shangliu" hexagram) The neat sentences in Yi Zhuan are more common, such as: "Look up at astronomy and look down at geography." ("Declining Cohesion"), "Correspondence with one voice, seeking with the same spirit, wet water and dry fire, cloud following dragon, wind following tiger ... are all according to their own categories." (Biography in Classical Chinese)

There are many antithetical sentences in The Book of Songs in the Spring and Autumn Period. Liu said in the History of Parallel Prose in China: "The law of opposing ancient and modern times is almost perfect in the Book of Songs." He listed examples of correct name pairs, similar pairs, renju pairs, disyllabic pairs, overlapping pairs and disyllabic pairs. Such as: "Qing Er, leisurely in my heart." ("Zheng Feng Ji Zi") "There are floating elements in the mountains and lotus in the hills." There are many antithetical sentences in the Tao Te Ching. Liu Zeng said: "The arbitration law in Tao Te Ching has undergone great changes, and there have been serial counterparties, uneven counterparties and sub-word counterparties. Some people repeat their words. Anyway, there is something right. " China's parallel prose history is an example: "What you believe is not beautiful, and what you say is not true. Good people don't argue, and debaters are not good. " (Chapter 8 1) "Independence and changelessness, freedom and danger." (Chapter 22) Look at the antitheses in hundred schools of thought's essays. Such as: "full loss, modest benefit." ("Shangshu Wucheng") "Take a fat horse and go into battle lightly." "The Analects of Confucius Yongye") "Honest people are magnanimous, and villains are often sad." (The Analects of Confucius) and so on. Cifu, which arose in the Han Dynasty, is a new style that pays attention to literary talent and rhythm. Duality, a rhetorical device with neat beauty, comparative beauty and beauty, has been widely and consciously used in the creation of Fu. For example, in Sima Xiangru's "Zi Xu Fu", there are: "Drum, sound; The car follows the route and rides on the team. "Parallel prose originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and flourished in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. As can be seen from the name, parallel prose is a dual style, which is mostly composed of antitheses. The continuous use of such antithetical sentences is also called parallelism or parallelism. In "Wen Xin Diao Long Shi Ming", Liu Xie commented that parallel prose is "a hundred words, and the price is amazing." In the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Bo's Preface to Wang Tengting once gave an example:

When Wei is in September, the sequence belongs to Sanqiu. The water is cold and the pool is clear, and the smoke is purple. Yan Yan likes to walk on the road and watch the scenery to worship Afghanistan. Near the Emperor Changzhou, it is the old fairy temple. Mountains and clouds are heavy; Feige is full of blood, and there is no land under it. Heting ancient bamboo, the haunt of poor islands; Gui Dian Lan Gong is the posture of hills.

Embroidered, Yamahara full of vision, Kawasawa full of vision. Yan Lu, the hometown of Zhong Mingding's delicious food; Ge boat maze, green finch Huanglong axis. Clouds selling rain Ji, colorful. Sunset and lonely Qi Fei, autumn waters and sky are the same color. Fishing boats sing late and resound all over the coast of Peng Li; Yan Zhen was stunned by the cold, and his voice broke Hengyang's pu.

They are all composed of antithetical sentences, among which "the sunset and lonely Qi Fei, autumn water and sky are the same color" is an eternal antithetical sentence. This antithesis is the further development of antithesis in ancient poetry, which has the following three characteristics: First, antithesis is no longer purely a rhetorical device, but has become the main metrical requirement of style. Parallel prose has three characteristics, namely, four or six sentence patterns, antithesis and allusions. Second, the number of dual words has certain rules. Mainly "46" sentence pattern and its variant forms. Mainly include: four-character dual, six-character dual, eight-character dual, cross dual and twelve-character dual. Third, the antithesis is quite skillful, but there are many heavy words (such as "Zhi, Er"), and the tone and rhythm of the antithesis are not fully mature. Duality, the antithesis in metrical poems. This poetic style, also known as modern poetry, was formally formed in the Tang Dynasty. But its origin began in Wei and Jin Dynasties. During the Cao Wei period, he wrote ten volumes of the Sound and five volumes of the Rhyme, which separated the clear and turbid sound from the palace, the merchants, the horns, the zither and Yu. In addition, Sun Yan also wrote Er Ya Yi Yin, using the method of anti-tangent phonetic notation. He is the founder of arc tangent. Generally, five-character or seven-character metrical poems are all eight sentences, and there are two couplets in the middle, which are called parallel prose and necklaces. They must be opposite, and the sentence pattern, level and meaning are all relative. This is a standard couple.

Take Du Fu's Ascending the Mountain as an example;

The wind is fast and high, the ape cries sadly, and the birds are circling in the white sand.

The endless trees are rustling leaves, and the Yangtze River is rolling unpredictably.

Li in the sad autumn scenery, a wanderer all the year round, lives alone on the high platform in today's illness.

After all the hardships and hatred, the white hair is full, and the wine glasses are damaged.

The jaw joint and neck joint of this poem, "leaves fall like the waves of a waterfall, and I watch the long river always roll forward." "I came from three thousand miles away. Sad this autumn, with my sorrow for a hundred years, I climbed this high alone "is extremely stable." Far better than the parallel prose dialogues in parallel prose. In addition to five or seven-character poems, Tang poetry also has three rhymes, six rhymes and arranged rhymes, and the couplets in the middle are also antithetical.

Couples also have three characteristics: first, antithesis is the metrical requirement of style; Second, the number of words changed from even sentences to odd sentences, and finally fixed at five or seven words; Third, the antithesis is accurate and stable, and the tone is mature.