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)
Extended data:
classify
I. Classification by purpose
1, Spring Festival couplets: special couplets for Chinese New Year. Such as: Kyushu willow spits green; Peach and apricot compete for spring in May.
2. Greeting couplets: used for birthday, wedding, housewarming, having children, opening business and other festive occasions. Such as: a pair of red hearts for the four modernizations; Two new hand-painted pictures. (Western Union) Lucky as the East China Sea; Life is better than Nanshan. (first couplet)
3. elegiac couplet: used to mourn the dead. For example, books have a strong future and will shock the world; Let the spirit shine forever and then benefit the people.
4. Gift giving: praise or encourage others to use it. Such as: wind, rain, reading, the sound in the ear; Family affairs, state affairs and everything in the world care about everything.
5. Self-encouragement: Self-encouragement. For example, books about the country are often read; Nothing is useless to body and mind.
6. Industry Association: Different industries are posted at the gate or in the store. Such as: split the road of life and death with both hands and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife. (Butcher) If you want to know eternal things; I have to read five books. (Bookstore) Although it is a clean business; But it's top kung fu. (Barber shop) welcomes guests in spring, summer, autumn and winter; Entertain people from east, west, north and south. (Hotel)
7. Yan Zhilian: the use of ambition. Such as: I would rather be Zhao's ghost; Not for him, minister. (Yang Bang) Long Fang Ozawa was stung, and the deer in the Central Plains was fat. (Yuan Shikai)
8. Birthday couplets: Go to Nanyuan today, Beihai tomorrow, and when will you go to Gu Chang 'an again? Sigh CoCo Lee ointment blood, just sing for one person. Fifty to Ryukyu, sixty to Taiwan Province Province, and now three northeastern provinces! Tongchi county, anxious, every long life, Xinjiang has no wish.
Second, according to the location
1, couplets: hung on posts and used in houses, institutions, traditional buildings and other places.
2, door couplet: posted on the gate.
3. Main hall couplets: couplets hung in conspicuous places in the living room and bedroom to match calligraphy and painting.
Third, according to the artistic characteristics
1, overlapping: the same word appears continuously. Such as: Yingying Yanyan, emerald and red, harmonious everywhere; Ups and downs, flowers and plants, year after year. (Shanghai Yuyuan Garden) The sea faces down, and the clouds are long and long (Mengjiang Women's Temple in Qinhuangdao)
2. Combination of compound words: the same word appears discontinuously and repeatedly. Such as: good mountains and water, good winds and good months, good land for a thousand years; Idiot's voice, idiot's dream and infatuation, generations of idiots. (Zhu Yuanzhang)
3. Truthful connection: the foot word of the previous clause serves as the head word of the latter clause. Such as: Wuxi Xishan Wuxi; Pinghu is a horizontal lake. (Tang Yin)
4. Mosaic couplets: including mosaic ordinal number, orientation, solar terms, year number, surname, name, place name, name of things (such as medicines), etc. For example, the crow in the hut listens to the wind and rain; Godun's article is very tangled. (Lao She gave it to Mao Dun)
5. Split-word couplets: Split a combined word in the couplets into several independent words; Some people divide it into "word segmentation, word combination and word analysis". Such as: this wood comes from Chaishan; There was a lot of smoke because of the fire.
6. Phonological association: including homophones, homophones and rhyming words. Such as: tung tree, tree boy, boy playing tung tree, tung tree falling boy happy; Outside the front garden, outside the house, outside the garden, outside the garden, outside the garden, outside the garden, outside the net.
7, humorous association: take the meaning of humor. Such as: Nantong House, North Tongzhou, and North Tongzhou connects North and South (Gan Long); East Pawnshop, West Pawnshop and East Pawnshop are all things (Ji Xiaolan).
8, no feelings: the meaning of the upper and lower couplets is irrelevant, but the words are neat. Most loveless couples are interesting and can be classified as humorous associations. Such as: Gongmen Li Tao Glory Day, France, Holland and Belgium. Samsung brandy; Huangmeitian in June. (He Danru)
9. Palindrome: read backwards, read backwards, and the meaning is exactly the same. Such as Ma Xie and Wallace, came to China. (Headline of the event newspaper) The tap water in Shanghai comes from the sea, and the larch leaves in Huangshan Mountain are yellow.
10, the longest couplet: the author is Zhong, a native of Jiangjin County, Chongqing in the late Qing Dynasty. In the 30th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1904), I wrote a couplet of Linjiang Tower in Jiangjin County to express my anger, with a total of 16 12 words.
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. "
In the Qing Dynasty, couplets flourished and many famous couplets appeared. In the Republic of China, Liu Shiliang satirized Yuan Shikai: "Yuan Shikai is eternal; Ten thousand years of the Republic of China. " The words "Yuan Shikai" above and "Republic of China" below are "wrong", which means that Yuan Shikai is sorry for the Republic of China.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia: Couplets