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.

Couplets are the treasures of China traditional culture, and the earliest recorded couplets appeared in the Three Kingdoms period. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1399), an extra-large iron cross was unearthed in Luling, Jiangxi Province (now Ji 'an City, Jiangxi Province), on which the year number of Sun Quan Chiwu in the Three Kingdoms period (238-250) was cast.

On the iron cross, there is also a beautifully made couplet cloud: "The four seas celebrate An Lan, and the iron column leaves a cross; All the people are pregnant with Ozawa, and the golden stove is fragrant for thousands of years. " Its form and content are related to early Christians in China. 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).

Parallel prose and rhyme are two direct sources of couplets. In the process of its own development, couplets have absorbed the characteristics of ancient poems, essays, lyrics and songs. Therefore, the sentence patterns used in couplets include ancient poems, prose sentences and parody sentences in addition to regular poems and parallel prose sentences. Different sentence patterns have different metrical patterns and different leniency.

Among them, the sentence pattern of rhythmic poetry is the most strict, while the sentence pattern of ancient verse has no restrictions except at the end of the sentence.

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. Different historical materials in the Song Dynasty have different opinions on this, and some people classify the author as the son of Meng Yun. So who is the author of this pair of Spring Festival couplets is still an unsolved case.

As a custom, couplets are an important part of China 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.

Extended data:

history

Since the Qin and Han dynasties, there has been a habit of hanging peach symbols. In the Five Dynasties, characters began to be engraved on peach symbols. Afterwards, he often ordered Han Lin's bachelor Xin to write auspicious words on the Taofu board. Later, couplets prevailed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with a history of 1000 years.

Three thousand years ago, our ancestors used antithesis in China. Poets' dialogues since Shang, Zhou and Han Dynasties, and dialogues in Ci and Fu since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, have made primitive accumulation of words for later couplets. The characteristics of Chinese characters' meanings and glyphs determine that the literati who use and write Chinese characters have a special liking for the rhetorical device of "duality".

Metric poems and metrical poems formed after the prosperous Tang Dynasty are dual and rigorous, and antithetical sentences are already an integral part of poems, and their independence is gradually strengthening.

Couplets are developed from antithetical couplets of metrical poems and couplets of parallel prose, and retain some characteristics of metrical poems. Therefore, the ancient people made a contrast between poetry and poetry, which reflected the relationship between them to some extent.

As early as before the Qin and Han Dynasties, China people had the custom of hanging peach symbols during the Spring Festival. Drive away ghosts and evil spirits. This custom lasted for more than 1000 years. In the Five Dynasties, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards. According to Song Shi Shu Jia, Meng Chang, the master of Shu after five dynasties, wrote the first couplet in the history of China: "Qing Yu in the New Year, Changchun in the First Festival".

After the Song Dynasty, it has become quite common for China people to hang Spring Festival couplets in the New Year. In the poem of Wang Anshi, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, "Thousands of households always change peaches for old ones" is a true portrayal of the grand occasion of the New Year at that time. Because the appearance of Spring Festival couplets is closely related to peach symbols, the ancients also called Spring Festival couplets "peach symbols".

It was not until the Ming Dynasty that people began to use red paper instead of red boards, which led to the Spring Festival couplets we see today. According to Miscellaneous Notes of Mao Yunlou, before the Lunar New Year's Eve, after Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of Ming Dynasty, made Jinling his capital, he ordered officials and literati to hang a pair of Spring Festival couplets at home, go out incognito in person, watch from house to house and have fun.

Since then, all scholars have regarded antithesis as an elegant thing. In the Ming Dynasty, Gu Xiancheng wrote the title of Wuxi Donglin Academy Union: "The sound of wind and rain is the sound of reading, and the sound is heard; Family affairs and state affairs, everything cares. "

trait

1, words are equal and sentences are consistent. In addition to deliberately leaving a place for a word to achieve a certain effect, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be the same, neither more nor less.

2. Parts of speech should be relative and in the same position. It is generally called "virtual to virtual, real to real" (the classification of parts of speech in ancient Chinese is different from that in modern Chinese), which means that nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, adjectives to adjectives, quantifiers to quantifiers, adverbs to adverbs and relational words must be in the same position in modern Chinese.

3, to be level and plain, harmonious tone. The level tone of couplets is "flat and flat", that is, if the rhyme foot of the upper couplet is flat, then the rhyme foot of the lower couplet will end in a flat voice, which is called "flat and flat". As for couplets, the phenomenon of "flat and flat" occasionally occurs, but it should be regarded as a change in style, rather than a common practice of couplets.

4. Be content-related, from top to bottom. The meaning of the upper and lower couplet should be related to each other and cannot be repeated. (Ruthless couples are not included)

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-couplets