Couplets, also known as couplets, originated in Fu Tao and are a kind of dual literature. It can be roughly divided into poetry couplet and prose couplet, and the size of parts of speech is strictly distinguished. It can be seen that it is a fundamental mistake to say that "couplets originate from regular poems". The antithesis of traditional couplets is more neat than the so-called poetry couplets. With the rise of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, prose couplets were excluded.

Prose couplets are generally eclectic, straightforward, do not avoid repetition, and do not overemphasize couplets with equivalent parts of speech without losing opposition.

Measurement of couplets

Couplets have a long history, and it is said that they originated from Meng Chang, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. His inscription is "New Year's Eve, Qing Yu, Festival". The word "Changchun" on the peach symbol board on the bedside door is "inscribed with peach symbols" (see Shu Lang). This is the earliest couplet in China and the earliest Spring Festival couplets. (See Applied Writing,No. 1987, Random Talk on Couplets)

The official name of couplets is couplets, commonly known as couplets, which is a unique Chinese language, literature and art form in China and is 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 first part of "Yuan Shikai" and the second part of "China people" are "sorry", which means 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 wrote "Wuxi Donglin Academy Union: the sound of reading in the wind and rain, and the sound and sound are heard"; Family affairs, state affairs and world affairs are all concerned.

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 symmetry means that the grammatical structure of the upper and lower conjunctions (or the structure of their phrases and sentence patterns) should be as same 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 its 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 links, "tree" and "fruit" are both vegetation; "Already" and "naturally" are both function words; "Half" and "one" are numbers; Both "search" and "point" are escaped as verbs; "Hugh" and "no" are function words; "Vertical" and "phase" are all function words; "Axe" and "dry" are 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 couplets

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 for people who celebrate their birthdays. Their contents are generally articles praising the merits and morals of people who have celebrated their birthdays, wishing people who have celebrated their birthdays much happiness, long life and 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.

The origin of couplets

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?" "Book of Rites" and "Huang Lao Silk Book" say: "There are left and right ways of heaven and earth, 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? Preface and postscript Oracle biography "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 the 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? "Thirty-two years in Zhao Gong") "The road in the world is just a package." ("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? Li Ci: Creation is shaped, and the support must be twofold; 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. They exist in the form of individual squares, square and uniform, occupying an 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.

The road to antithesis: from the perspective of literary history, couplets are gradually evolved from antithetical sentences in ancient poems. This development process has gone through three stages:

The first stage is the dual stage, from the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties to the 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 seen their disadvantages. 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 have been 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." (dry? Classical Biography of China)

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 flowers in the pond." ("Zheng Feng? There are many antithetical sentences in Tao Te Ching. Liu Zeng said: "The methods of correcting right in Tao Te Ching have changed a lot, including serial correction, unfair correction and split-word correction. Some people repeat their words. Anyway, there is something right. " (The History of China Parallel Prose, for example: "What you believe is not beautiful, 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 again. Such as: "full loss, modest benefit." ("Shangshu? "Wu Cheng"), "Take a fat horse and go into battle lightly." The Analects of Confucius? "eternal night") "decent people, decent people, and villains are often embarrassed people." ("The Analects? And ") and so on. Cifu, which arose in the Han Dynasty, is a new style that pays attention to literary talent and rhythm. As a rhetorical device with the beauty of neatness, contrast and music, duality has been widely and consciously used in the creation of Fu. For example, Sima Xiangru's "Zi Xufu" has: "Drumming, starting a bonfire; The car follows the route and rides on the team. "

Five-character poems came into being in Han Dynasty and reached its peak in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Among them, the use of antithetical sentences is also more. The antithesis in Han Yuefu is more neat, just like the couplet in later poems. For example, "if young people don't work hard, old people will be sad." ("Long Songs") "The new moon spreads gold, and the cold light shines iron clothes. The general died in a hundred battles, and the strong man returned in ten years. " (Mulan Ci) In the above-mentioned styles, antithetical sentences have the following characteristics: First, they are only used as a rhetorical device, not as a stylistic requirement; Second, the number of words is mostly between three words and seven words; Third, antithesis is very loose, and the number of words, parts of speech and sentence patterns are generally relative, but there is a lack of even antithesis. This is just as Mr. Zhu Guangqian said: "The meaning of husband and wife began early, and the duality of sound was deduced from this." (Chapter 12 of Selected Works of Zhu Guangqian's Aesthetics)

The second stage is a parallel coupling stage. Parallel prose originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and flourished in the Southern and Northern 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. Liu Xie in Wen Xin Diao Long? Ming poetry's evaluation of parallel prose is that "couples who choose hundreds of words compete for the same price." Take Wang Bo's Preface to Wang Tengting in the Early Tang Dynasty as 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. Terraces are green and the sky is 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, the posture of mountains and 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. Rainbow sells raindrops, and the color area is bright. 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.

The third stage is the legal couple stage. Duality, the antithesis in metrical poems. This style of poetry, also known as modern poetry, was formally formed in the Tang Dynasty, but its origin began in the 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. However, in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was only the rhyme of palace and business, and there was no name of four tones. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, inspired and influenced by the "turn-reading" of Buddhist scriptures, the four-tone theory was established and written as "Sound Spectrum". By reading Buddhist scriptures and applying them to China's poems, it becomes four tones: flat, up, down and inner. At the same time, Zhou Pian wrote Four Tones, and Shen Yue wrote Four Tones Spectrum, which established the theories of Four Tones and Eight Diseases. According to the characteristics of rhythm and musical beauty required by poetry, through the exploration of creative practice, the principle that poetry must be "different in five words, different in rhyme and different in two sentences" is summarized. Therefore, the rhythm of poetry is becoming more and more strict. The prosodic pattern of antithetical sentences has developed from parallel pairs to legal pairs. There are quite neat antitheses in Shen Yue's and Xie Tiao's "Yongming Style" poems. Such as: "the clouds go to the wild, and the water goes back to Jianghan." (Xie Tiao's "New Pavilion Farewell to Fan Lingling Cloud") such as; "Ai Ye Mi Nanpu, Lotus Around the North Building" (Shen Yue's "Ai My Heart") and so on. After the prevalence of "four tones" and "eight diseases" in Qi and Liang Dynasties, the four tones were divided into two categories: flat (flat) and peaceful (up, down and entering), which not only gave rise to the concept of flat tone, but also gradually summarized that the flat tone of each poem should change and the flat tone between poems. At the same time, it is found that the use of five or seven words in each poem is more musical and rhythmic than that of four or six words. In a poem, the use of parallelism and prose sentences can also show the intricate beauty of language. In this way, from the "new style poetry" with a little rhyme in the Qi and Liang Dynasties, after more than one hundred years of development, to the Tang Dynasty, metrical poetry reached a strict and accurate stage and became one of the main forms of Tang poetry. 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.

Hardship, pain, hatred, heartache and fatigue are a thick layer of dust in my wine.

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.

To sum up, antithetical sentences in China's literature have gone through at least two or three thousand years, including three stages: parallelism, parallelism and regularity. The principle of symmetry was extended from meaning to sound (Chapter 12 of Selected Works of Zhu Guangqian's Aesthetics), which reached its acme in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The antithesis skills of poets in the Tang Dynasty have been fully developed. If the couplets are compared to the fetus conceived in the poem Mother, then the fetus at this time has been fully developed and will be born soon.

Characteristics of couplets

Mr. Ji Shichang and Mr. Zhu Jingzhi once summarized the characteristics of couplets in The Study of China Couplets as: distinctive nationality, strong times, rigorous rhythm, high generality and wide practicability. A distinctive nation means that couplets vividly reflect our own national traditions and characteristics. A strong sense of the times means that couplets, like all literary forms, are bound to bear the imprint of the times. Strict meter means that couplets have their own unique meter. A high degree of generality means that couplets have stronger artistic generalization power than other literary forms, and can often reflect profound and extensive life content with extremely limited words. Extensive practicability refers to the universal application of couplets in social life, which can be described as ubiquitous in all walks of life, all kinds of people and all kinds of occasions.

Fu's On the Characteristics of China Couplets summarizes the characteristics of couplets into five opposites:

Unity of uniqueness and universality: It is generally believed that couplets are the most unique literary form in China. What is unique about it? Mainly in structure and language. Couplets can be called "dual structure" style. Standard couplets always consist of two opposing parts. The former part is called "Lian", which is also called "sentence", "antithesis" and "antithesis". The latter part is called "bottom link", which is also called "antithesis", "antithesis" and "antithesis". These two parts are paired. Only the upper part or the lower part can be regarded as semi-joint. Of course, many couplets, especially those written and hung, have horizontal comments in addition to the upper and lower couplets. Horizontal criticism is an organic part of this kind of couplets, which is often a summary, the finishing touch or compatible with couplets. Generally, it is four words, but also two, three, five and seven words. From the linguistic point of view, the language of couplets is neither a verse language nor a prose language, but a special language that pursues antithesis and is full of musicality. The special "language structure" of couplets is completely determined by the special nature of Chinese and its characters. The uniqueness of this "language structure" makes the creation of couplets different from other literary forms in conception, conception, layout and planning. With the same objective object and content, we always try to observe and describe things from two aspects and angles, and strive to "shape" the language into a binary and symmetrical structure.

Couplets have the above-mentioned uniqueness, but it is still a literary form with general and universal characteristics of literature. It is also the art of using language to shape literary images, reflect social life and express thoughts and feelings. It has the characteristics of image, authenticity and inclination of literature, and also has the cognitive, educational and aesthetic functions of literature. Couplets can be narrative, tangible, lyrical and argumentative. To mourn the dead, you can write a eulogy, a poem, or a couplet, which shows that the couplet is a member of the literary family, but its form is unique.

Unity of parasitism and tolerance: The so-called parasitism refers to couplets developed from parallel prose in China's ancient ci and fu. In short, they are a pair of compound sentence, so they can be parasitic in various styles. Isn't there a neat antithesis in poems, words, songs, fu, parallel prose, and even prose, drama and novels? On the other hand, couplets are extremely inclusive. It can combine the characteristics of other styles, absorb the expressive techniques of other styles, especially long couplet and super-long couplet, and simply combine the achievements of Chinese stylistic techniques. For example, the refined meaning of poetry, the exaggeration of fu, the long tone of words, the significance of songs, the free and easy prose, the short rhyme of scriptures, etc., are all eclectic and innovative.

This is China's couplet, a special art form full of contradictions and unity of opposites.

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