Couplets, one of the traditional cultures in China, also called couplets or couplets, are antithetical sentences written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. The antithesis of couplets is neat and even, which is a unique artistic form of Chinese language and a treasure of China traditional culture. Couplets are a kind of dual literature, which originated in Fu Tao and got its name from the pillars hanging in halls and houses in ancient times. It is a antithetical sentence written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. It is a unique art form of Chinese language, concise and profound, neat and even, with the same number of words and the same structure. Couplets are short in form and concise in words, which is not only a vivid artistic expression, but also an excellent cultural heritage. Couplets are developed on the basis of ancient "Fu Tao" and "antithesis". The earliest Spring Festival couplets in China appeared more than 1000 years ago. Generally speaking, in my personal opinion, couplets are used in solemn places, showing solemnity and the characteristics of this place, without paying attention to the relative parts of speech of upper and lower couplets; Spring Festival couplets are used for festival celebrations to show blessings; Pairing is mostly used in life, which is more interesting and pays attention to simplicity and semantic confrontation.
According to Shan Hai Jing, there were two immortal brothers in the East China Sea in ancient times, one named shentu and the other named Lei Yu. They often wait in haunted places, and once the evil spirits haunt and hurt people, they catch them with reeds and attract tigers to eat them. In order to eliminate disasters and seek safety, later generations painted it on mahogany boards and changed it once a year, which is called "peach symbol". "Miscellaneous Notes on the Chronicle of the Dynasty" also records: "The system of peach symbols is made of peach wooden boards two or three feet, four or five inches in size, painted with gods and written with spring words or blessings, especially at the age of eighteen." After the Tang Dynasty, besides Er Shen, Qin Qiong and Weichi Gong were also regarded as door gods. After the Five Dynasties, Meng Changjun, the master of Houshu, ordered the bachelor to write a new inscription, "Welcome the Spring Festival, and the number of festivals will last forever". Refers to the peach character of the title. Since then, parallel prose has replaced the immortal military commanders, and in the Qing Dynasty, Liang Zhangju turned couplets into textual research, which is also one of the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. It was not until the Song Dynasty that Wang Anshi proved that Spring Festival couplets had entered thousands of households. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang advocated and asked every household to post Spring Festival couplets on their doors, so it has continued to this day.
The most essential feature of a standard couplet is "antithesis". The explanation of "duality" in Ci Hai is "duality of poetry and words." The dual explanation of Ci Hai is: "One of the figures of speech. Use sentences with the same number of words and similar syntax to express opposite or related meanings. " ? And I think the origin of duality also comes from one of the foundations of China culture-the theory of yin and yang and five elements. Taiji gives birth to two devices, and it is a relative of one yin and one yang. Look at the two small fish, Yin and Yang, on the Tai Chi map, and their opposites are unified. This is not a simple separation. The intercourse of yin and yang has evolved into a myriad of weather between heaven and earth. Two instruments give birth to four elephants, four elephants give birth to eight diagrams, eight eight sixty-four, and Nebuchadnezzar is everywhere.
Isn't the antithesis of couplets the same? "Yin" and "Yang" are relatively unified. Just two sentences can make it colorful. People say that couplets are "blank poems", in fact, they mean that couplets can have poetic realm, contain poetic feelings and be more flexible than poetry. It can be big, small, urgent, slow, free, acceptable, solemn, humorous, elegant and popular.
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. Just like a game that Yun-peng Yue once played in the cross talk Spring Festival couplets: the sky is against the ground, the rain is against the wind, and the mainland is against the sky. Thunder is faint and foggy, the market is open, and everything is empty. Flat, flat, flat, flat. Although it is a joke, it also clearly shows the nature of this requirement.
As for the splendid couplets in history, they are definitely the 180-word couplets put forward by Sun Ranweng on the Daguanlou in Dianchi Lake, Kunming, Yunnan in the Qing Dynasty. This couplet is called "the first couplet in the world", so Sun Ranweng is called "Lian Sheng". Guo Moruo once praised him for "the long couplet is still on the wall and the huge pen is like a rafter", which also shows his high artistry. Then I went to the inscription of Suzhou Netscape Garden, "ups and downs, self-knowledge, looking everywhere;" Yingying, Yan Yan, Hua Ye, Qing Qing Morning and Night, which is also an artistic masterpiece after the reorganization of the word "slow voice". Yueyang Tower also has a classic couplet. Part one: Go upstairs at dusk in spring, go up and down with ichthyosaurs, and cherish the lake and green water; The second part: when you are drunk, you don't talk about dreams. You are like a pillow. This connection makes the scenery in front of you and the resentment in your heart bring out the best in each other, and every word represents infinite feelings. "The pavilion is full of fragrant pools, between the willows and the lotus, and the songs are all in the painting; In a villa in a foggy cage, frogs sing and drums sing, and sunny and rainy days are always pleasant. This is the pavilion couplet of Hangzhou West Lake, which is a "cage" and a "willow lotus room" and "frogs croak and drums croak". How can the beauty of the West Lake not make people linger? What makes people smell the alcohol far away is the couplet of Xinghua Village archway in Shanxi: "The alcohol is soaring, and the birds smell it and turn it into a phoenix; When the dregs fall on the ground, the fish will taste like a dragon. "Couplets write wonderful wine, birds smell fragrant and turn into phoenixes, and fish will taste like dragons. So, isn't it better for people to drink this wine than for gods?
Yun-peng Yue mentioned three masterpieces in his cross talk, each with different characteristics. The first link: Shanghai tap water comes from the sea, and Shanxi coal trucks transport coal to Xishan. This is a circular pair, which can form a good pair from front to back and from back to front. The second couplet: flying north and south, with wings, east and west, divided into upper and lower parts. The front car is behind the track, about two laps, high and low. This combination skillfully blends all locative verbs into it, which is neat and interesting. The feature of the last couplet is that Chinese characters with the same pronunciation have different conventions: eating crabs is not enough to eat crab feet, and eating enough is not enough. Combine "satisfaction" with "crab feet". This also fully proves the profoundness of China culture.
Whether it is couplets or Spring Festival couplets, couplets are excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, which needs us to inherit and carry forward. In a word, it means a lot and is dedicated to the world.