Couplets are also called couplets, commonly known as couplets, which are a unique Chinese language, literature and art form in China and are deeply loved by people from all walks of life. To sum up, the joint law is six elements, also called "six phases", which are described as follows:
First, the number of words should be equal. The number of words online equals the number of words offline. The number of words in each clause of the long couplet is equal. There is a special case that the number of words in the upper and lower couplets is intentionally different. For example, during the Republic of China, some people ridiculed Yuan Shikai's couplets: "Yuan Shikai is eternal; Long live the people of China. " The words "Yuan Shikai" and "China people" are linked together, which shows that Yuan Shikai is sorry for the people of China.
Overlapping or overlapping words are allowed in sentences. Folding in half and overlapping words are commonly used rhetorical devices in couplets, but attention should be paid to the consistency of the upper and lower couplets when overlapping. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, Gu Xiancheng titled "Wuxi Donglin Academy Union:
The sound of wind and rain reading is in the ear;
Family affairs, state affairs and everything in the world care about everything. ：
However, we should try to avoid "homophony" and "homophony" in couplets. The so-called homonym means that the same word is opposite in the same position of the upper and lower parts. The so-called ectopic reduplication refers to the fact that the same word appears in different positions in the upper and lower links. But some function words are allowed to have homonyms, such as Gelinglian of West Lake in Hangzhou:
The song of peach blossom and flowing water;
Between the shade and the grass.
The word "Zhi" in the upper and lower couplets is repeated in the same place, but it is OK because it is empty word. However, there is a special form of "ectopic mutual weight" (called "transposition case"), such as Lin Sen's couplet with Dr. Sun Yat-sen:
A person is eternal;
One person through the ages.
Second, equivalence of parts of speech. There are two types of parts of speech in modern Chinese, namely, notional words and function words. The former includes nouns (including locative words), verbs, adjectives (including color words), numerals, quantifiers and pronouns. The latter includes adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary words, exclamations and onomatopoeias. Part of speech equivalence means that words or phrases with the same position in the upper and lower parts should have the same or similar parts of speech. The first is the rule of "real to real, virtual to virtual", which is the most basic rule and has the widest meaning. In some cases, just follow this. Secondly, the corresponding rules of parts of speech, that is, the words 12 above correspond to each other. This rule should be observed in most cases. Thirdly, the semantic correspondence rule refers to putting things of the same type represented by Chinese characters together for confrontation. The ancients noticed this rhetorical method long ago. In particular, nouns are divided into many subcategories, such as astronomy (sun, moon, wind, rain, etc. ), season (day and night, etc. ), geography (mountains and rivers, etc. ), government offices (towers, doors, etc. ), vegetation (trees, peaches, plums, etc. ), birds (chickens, birds, cranes, etc. ) and so on. Finally, the corresponding rules of adjacent categories, that is, words in adjacent categories can be paired with each other. For example, astronomy returns to the season, astronomy to geography, geography to the palace and so on.
Third, the structure is commensurate. The so-called structural proportion means that the grammatical structure of the upper and lower conjunctions (or the structure of their phrases and sentence patterns) should be as consistent as possible, that is, the subject-predicate structure is opposite to the subject-predicate structure, the verb-object structure is opposite to the verb-object structure, the partial structure is opposite to the partial structure, and the coordinate structure is opposite to the coordinate structure, and so on. For example, Li Bai's topic is Hunan Yueyang Loulian:
Water and the sky are one color;
The wind and the moon are boundless.
This conjunction is both a subject-predicate structure. Among them, "water sky" and "romantic moon" are both parallel structures, and "one color" and "boundless" are all positive structures.
However, in the case of equivalent parts of speech, the requirements for some similar or special sentence structures can be relaxed appropriately.
Fourth, the rhythm corresponds. That is, the places where the up and down links stop must be consistent. : such as:
Don't let the spring and autumn pass;
It's the hardest for an old friend to come once.
This is a seven-character short couplet, and the rhythm of the upper and lower couplets is exactly the same, both of which are "223". Longer couplets must have corresponding rhythm.
The fifth is uniformity and harmony. What is leveling? The classification of flat tones in Putonghua is, in short, flat tones and upper tones, flat tones and flat tones. In the ancient four tones, the flat sound is flat, and the rising, going and entering sounds are silent. Even peace and harmony include two aspects:
(1) The upper and lower links are opposite. Generally speaking, word alignment is not required, but attention should be paid to the alignment of the upper and lower tails (feet), the upper part is different and the lower part is flat; The words at the end of the sentence or at the rhythm point should be flat and opposite; The ending (foot) of each clause in a long couplet should be flat, right.
(2) The upper and lower couplets alternate in the sentence. Yu Dequan, a contemporary couplet writer, summed up a set of "horseshoe rhyme" rules. Simply put, it is "flat, steady and steady", and the rhythm like a horseshoe goes on, such as:
Shushan has a road service as the path;
○○●●○○●
There is no limit to learning the sea.
●●○○●●○
(○ is flat, ● is flat. The word "Xue" is based on Pingbu)
The problem of alignment is not absolute, and it can be flexible in many cases. If there are overlapping words, compound words, palindromes, humor, phonology, etc. in couplets, it can be decided according to the specific situation. There are some exceptions if the trade union thinks it is necessary.
Sixth, the content is relevant. What are couplets? It is both "right" and "related". The words mentioned above are all "right", with the same number of words, equivalent parts of speech, the same structure, corresponding rhythm and even harmony, but they still lack a "couplet". "Lian" is about content relevance. Between the upper and lower couplets of a couplet, the content should be related. If the upper and lower couplets each write an irrelevant thing, and the two can't reflect, connect and echo, it can't be regarded as a qualified couplet, or even a couplet.
But there are exceptions to any law of couplets, and so is "content-related". There are two extremely special couplets in couplets. First, "there is no love for each other." The upper and lower couplets are neat word for word, but the content is irrelevant (or specious), and the comparison of the upper and lower couplets can arouse unexpected interest. For example:
The tree is half looking for an axe;
Really irrelevant.
In the upper and lower couplet, "tree", "fruit" and "dawn" are all vegetation; "Already", "Ran" and "He" are all function words; "Half", "one" and "three" are all numbers; "Qiu", "Dian" and "Ce" are all escaped verbs; "Hugh", "Nothing" and "Ding" are all function words; "Vertical", "phase" and "An" are all empty word; "Axe", "dry" and "Liu" are all ancient weapons. The All-China Federation is more unexpectedly interested in using spoken English than poetry.
The second is to recite the poem clock alone. The upper and lower couplets recite two unrelated things respectively; Word for word, word for word, neat; Connect two things from a certain point through a conjunction. There are some similarities between the poem in the poem and the bell, and also similar to the riddle, but there are also many differences. Interested friends can further study.
Couplets emphasize the relevance of content, but they are forbidden to be synonymous, which is called "fighting". The so-called "avoiding synonymous opposition" refers to the relative sentences of the upper and lower parts, and its meanings should be avoided as far as possible, such as "rising sun" to "rising sun", "history books" to "history books", "China's past dynasties show" to "Chi county magistrate gives birth to spring", "business is booming all over the world" to "financial resources are expanding into the three rivers" and so on. Of course, the crossing of individual non-central words, or the crossing of hands, accounts for a small proportion in couplets, which is harmless.
The custom of editing this couplet
As a custom, Spring Festival couplets are an important part of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation. In 2005, the State Council listed the custom of couplets in the first national intangible cultural heritage list. The relevant introduction and evaluation texts are as follows:
The custom of couplets originated from the dual phenomenon of ancient Chinese in China. During the Western Jin Dynasty (around 290), the appearance of harmonious and exquisite antithesis can be regarded as an important symbol of its formation. In the course of more than 1,700 years of historical circulation, traditional literary forms such as couplets, parallel prose and regular poems have influenced and borrowed from each other. After three important periods of development: the Northern Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, the forms became increasingly diverse and the cultural accumulation gradually enriched. Couplets include couplets, couplets and couplets. Since the Ming Dynasty, people have called it couplets.
Couplets use "vice" as quantifier, and generally use two lines of sentences as a pair, which are displayed side by side and vertically, from top to bottom, first right and then left, with the upper part on the right and the lower part on the left. Couplets belong to metrical literature, and there are various stresses, but there are no restrictions on the number of words and sentences, ranging from one word to thousands of words. Its stylistic features are the comparison from top to bottom, the same number of words, the same part of speech, the same level and level, the corresponding words, the combination of rhythm and form and meaning, especially the level and level of melody and part of speech. Couplets are concise, elegant and popular, and are called "poems in poems".
Couplets take characters as their content and calligraphy as their carrier. There are many kinds of products, such as paper mounting, picture frames, wood carving, stone carving and bamboo carving. In the development of couplets, a large number of related works have appeared, and there are tens of thousands of couplets.
Couplets are widely used, not only in palaces, pavilions, halls and bookstores, but also in festivals, inscriptions, congratulations, mourning and tombs. According to different functions, it can be divided into Spring Festival couplets, birthday couplets, scenery couplets, self-titled couplets and various skill couplets.
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.
The customs of couplets mainly include the following:
Customs of Spring Festival couplets. Spring Festival couplets, called Spring Festival couplets in ancient times, are seasonal couplets written and posted during the Spring Festival every year. The custom of Spring Festival couplets originated in the Five Dynasties, formed in the Song Dynasty, and became very common in the Ming Dynasty. In Hunan, posting Spring Festival couplets is an important custom in the Spring Festival culture. Spring Festival couplets have the characteristics of eulogy, timeliness and pertinence, highlighting the word "spring".
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is posted on the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls.
Marriage customs. Wedding couplets are written to celebrate the wedding, and are usually posted on the door, cave door, hall or makeup hall of the wedding home. Its content is mostly warm praise and good wishes for both parties to the marriage, with a strong auspicious and festive color.
Custom of birthday couplets. Birthday couplets are special couplets to celebrate the birthday of people who have celebrated their birthdays. Their contents are generally articles praising the merits and morals of people who have celebrated their birthdays. Those who wish them a long life are blessed with warm and respectful feelings.
The custom of elegiac couplet. The elegiac couplet, called mourning couplet in some places, evolved from elegiac couplet and is a kind of couplet used by people to express their memory and mourning for their ancestors and the deceased. Often posted at the door, on both sides of the urn, on both sides of the memorial hall, on the wreath. Generally, solemn, solemn and painful feelings are written in black and white. Through a common language, arouse people's memory and respect for the deceased.
Edit the source of this couplet
Philosophical origin: antithetical couplets are antithetical literature. The parallel symmetry of this language is very similar to the so-called "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments" in philosophy, that is, everything in the world is divided into two halves of yin and yang symmetry, which are very similar in thinking essence. 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? 6? 1 on the ceremony) Huang Lao's silk book says: "The way of heaven and earth has 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." Zhouyi? 6? 1 Preamble "There is heaven and earth and then everything, then everything has men and women, then men and women have husband and wife, then husband and wife have father and son, then father and son have ministers, then ministers have ups and downs, and then there are etiquette." 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, father, monarch, head, upper, 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". "things are born in two ... and have left and right bodies, each with a concubine." ("Zuo zhuan? 6? 1 Thirty-two years in Zhao Gong) "The road in the world is just a package for two people." ("Zhuzi School" Volume 93) "Maturity and rebirth are justice in justice. Governing the text, from Taiji to two instruments, is nothing more than nothing; Daily use, cold and heat, day and night, all kinds of personnel-life and death, dignity, wealth, respect, up and down, length, distance, old and new, size, smell, depth, light and shade, all kinds of ends, can not be enumerated. " (Ye Xie: Original Poetry) This national psychology rooted in the dual world outlook of Yin and Yang is one of the deep-seated reasons for the emergence and popularity of antithetical sentences. Many previous discussions have also noticed this connection. "Wen Xin Diao Long? 6? 1 Li ci: the creation is tangible, and the support must be double; God makes sense for use, and things are not isolated. My husband is full of words, and I have to worry about it. You must compete with each other and naturally pair up. ..... Body implants must be two, words and deeds are consistent. ……
Etymology: A standard couplet, the most essential feature of which 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. However, in Chinese, "k?m?ch?" and "j?p?" 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.
English: (Shakespeare's famous sentences, arranged in the form of couplets)
Chinese:
Construct a good idea;
Write witty sentences.
English "upper and lower couplets" have the same number of words, the same part of speech and the same sentence pattern, but the syllables are not equal. Reading, because there is no tone, the upper and lower couplets are all the same sound, and there is no cadence brought by leveling. As for writing, "bottom couplet" is two letters less than "top couplet", so it is completely asymmetrical. Readers may wonder, can you find and write an English antithetical sentence with equal syllables and equal writing spacing (equal letters) on the basis of the same number of words, the same part of speech and the same sentence pattern? We can't say absolutely not, but because English syllables, words and morphemes are not trinity, we can only pay attention to one thing and lose the other in practice, even Shakespeare's antithetical sentences are extremely rare in English. And "good ideas" in Chinese; Writing a witty sentence is another matter. You see, the words are the same, the parts of speech are the same, the sentence patterns are the opposite, the syllables are the same, the flat and even words are basically harmonious, but the writing is completely neat and symmetrical. Therefore, English "thinks good thoughts; Write a good hand. " Not couplets, but Chinese "constitutes a beautiful thought; Write a wonderful sentence. "You can call it a couplet.