Couplets vary in length, only one or two words are short; It can be hundreds of words long. There are various forms of couplets, such as pairs, pairs, flowing pairs, couplets, set sentence pairs and so on. However, no matter what kind of couplets and forms are used, they must have the following characteristics:
First, the number of words should be equal and the sentences should be 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.
Second, it is necessary to be honest and have a harmonious tone. The traditional habit is to "pucker up and fall flat", that is, the end of the last sentence of the first couplet is puckered up and the end of the last sentence of the second couplet is flat.
Third, the parts of speech should be relative and the position should be consistent. It is generally called "virtual to virtual, real to real", which means that nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, adjectives to adjectives, quantifiers to quantifiers, adverbs to adverbs and related words must be in the same position.
Fourth, the content should be related and run through from top to bottom. The meaning of up and down links must be interrelated, but they cannot be repeated.
In addition, the traditional practice of hanging couplets must be written straight and pasted vertically, from right to left and from top to bottom, and cannot be reversed.
The horizontal criticism closely related to couplets can be said to be the title and center of couplets. Good reviews can make the finishing point and complement each other in couplets.
Couplets are one of the unique literary forms in China, and their wonderful combination with calligraphy has become a colorful artistic creation of the Chinese nation. Couplets are called "couplets", which are named after the pillars hanging in halls and houses in ancient times. "Song history according to? According to the records of the aristocratic families in Shu, Meng Chang, the king of Shu after five dynasties, once wrote a couplet of "Happy New Qing Yu". When Changchun was five years old, he hung it in the palace to welcome spring and pray for blessings. Later generations began to take this as the first example of couplets, which has a history of more than 1000 years. Since the Ming Dynasty, the custom of using couplets has become more and more popular, and the Spring Festival couplets related to the Chinese New Year have gradually broken through the original scope, such as sightseeing, praising the scenery, or expressing feelings and thoughts, and become widely used cultural expressions.
China's calligraphy is profound and charming. All forms of seal script are cursive, or they are good at being vigorous, graceful and simple, or beautiful and elegant, giving people a kind of elegant and smart aesthetic feeling. Couplets are concise, neat and rigorous, and the number of words in couplets ranges from four to eight. Five-character or seven-character poems and eight-character sentences are common and rich in content. A few poems, aphorisms, proverbs and even vernacular Chinese can be beautiful and beautiful. It's really a chapter that shines on people's eyes. Therefore, combining calligraphy with couplets, appreciating the poetic philosophy of beautiful words in calligraphy and the charm of beautiful books between words is indeed a perfect embodiment of humanistic art. Throughout the ages, book music has been rewarded by this, and literati like to hang this elegance on the wall as the charm of their beautiful books and essays, which makes people fondle it and last for a long time.
The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, this folk custom was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Pick up the fun of couplets.
Yan Tao
Entering the twelfth lunar month, the root of the year is approaching, and it is time for thousands of families to exchange old peaches for new ones. In ancient times, people hung two red wooden boards with the door gods painted or engraved with their names, thinking that they could ward off evil spirits and drive away special things. On New Year's Eve, they put Spring Festival couplets on it, so they borrowed the symbol of peach to refer to Spring Festival couplets.
Couplets, also known as couplets, couplets and couplets, are composed of upper and lower couplets. They are antithetical sentences written on paper, cloth, engraved or hung on wood, bamboo and columns. There is no rule on the number of words, so you can type them neatly. Spring Festival couplets are just a kind of couplets. In addition, it is called a happy couplet when you get married, a birthday couplet when you celebrate your birthday, an elegiac couplet when you mourn the dead, and so on.
According to Ji Xiaolan in the Qing Dynasty, the earliest couplets in China were inscribed on the mahogany board of the bedroom door by Meng Chang, a young master of Shu after the Five Dynasties, "Welcome Qing Yu in the New Year and celebrate the festival in Changchun" (see Biography of Shu). Recently, some people think that the inscription on Fu Tao in Dunhuang, written in the middle of Tang Dynasty, is the earliest preserved couplet found in China.
According to rhetorical devices, couplets are divided into many, color-oriented, multi-homophonic, multi-double, same-root, multi-disjunctive, couplet (namely, turning couplet), palindrome, literal contradiction couplet, transformation couplet, etc., which is ingenious and novel and can be called clever couplet. If it is so clever that no one can match the couplets below or above, the ancients called the couplets that are difficult to pair "unique couplets" or "linked couplets". According to legend, Huang Tingjian, a great poet and calligrapher in the Northern Song Dynasty, left Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang) for Suzhou and Hangzhou by boat when he was young. Hearing that he was a local genius, the boatman tried his hand and sang, "Drive a boat with one leaf, paddle two oars, support three or four sheds, take five or six passengers, and cross Qilitan to Bali Lake, ten miles from Jiujiang." There are one to ten numbers and place names in this couplet, which makes Huang Tingjian not only incorrect at that time, but also puzzling after many years of fame, and no one can continue it so far. Also in the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi and Su Dongpo, prime ministers of Zongshen, had three difficulties. One of them made three online courtship sentences: "February, spring, February, August, there are two seasons in the world", "Qili Mountain Pond, three and a half miles to half soup" and "Tieweng City West, Sanbao Yinshan". That year coincided with the leap in August, and beginning of spring was divided into the first month and the twelfth month, so there was the first line; From Suzhou Jinlongmen to Qilichang Road at the foot of Huqiu Mountain, the locals call it "Shantang", and there is a place called "Li Sanban" in the middle, so the second couplet is here; The third is also a coincidence, because Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province was called Tiewengcheng in ancient times, and it is near the Yangtze River. There are Jinshan, Yinshan (also known as Jiao Shan) and Yushan (also known as Beigushan), and there are gold, silver and jade in the couplets, which are truly "three treasures". Even if Su Dongpo is a genius and thinks hard for a long time, he can't be a couple. During the reign of Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty, Jiang, the magistrate of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, stood up for his words, but was killed by foreign priests, which angered the whole country. Jiang held a memorial service in Taoranting Park near the South Second Ring Road in Beijing. At that time, someone wrote a couplet, demanding "Jiangxi Jiangting Jiang Memorial Service", but so far no one can continue. In Yunan County, Guangdong Province, there once lived a talented woman named Baihua. The first couplet she wrote was "Living in Chang 'an, working in Dong 'an, looking better than Pan An, correcting better than Xie 'an, cultivating self-cultivation." The first two "An" are place names, the middle two "An" are names, and the last two "An" are from Confucius' famous sayings in The Analects of Confucius. She also made a pair of couplets of "beehive maple knot, the wind blows maple leaves to cover the bee door" to ask for couplets, but it was also fruitless for a long time.
Some of them must be getting older and older, and only some of them can continue. Once upon a time, in Baita Street, Luzhou, Sichuan, there was a blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith, blacksmith. Now, some people talk about "Danshui Bay, bitter farmers, wearing cool clothes to connect the seven colors and six flavors, and adding the word" cool ",while their wives, children, blacksmiths, blacksmiths, blacksmit Some people use "Confucius and Mencius and Mozi are the saints of the Chinese nation" to continue Wang Anshi's "Tieweng City West, Jade Silver Mountain Three Treasures". The conjunctions of quatrains are far-fetched and far from artistic conception. The famous Tang poem "Liu Tang in Yansuochi" contains Jin Mu's five elements of fire, water and earth. Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been many continuous couplets, such as Ji, hanging a brocade threshold with a lamp, sinking a desk lamp with a bell, Zhenjiang City with a gun rack, and Gun Town Tower. The author thinks that although the couplets meet the requirements of the same part, the artistic conception is too far apart. Except for the last couplet, all the couplets are suspected of dog tail and mink hair.
In practical application, couplets are not punctuated, and different sentences have different meanings, even on the contrary, which will produce many humorous and interesting things. Once upon a time, Zhu Zhishan, one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou", wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets to a rich man who was addicted to money. The rich gentry read, "Tomorrow is a good spring, but it's unlucky. It's less luck and more money all year round." I was very happy, so I paid a lot of money. After the banquet, he personally sent Zhu Zhishan out of the village. Who knows that just entering the house, I heard someone outside read: "Tomorrow is spring, and I am going to be unlucky; Bad luck all the year round, less money and more money. " The rich gentry were so angry that they had to admit that he was unfortunate because he had suffered. Zhu Zhishan has done this kind of thing more than once. In order to teach a stingy rich man a lesson, he wrote a couplet for his new house. While chanting, he wrote: "This house is very safe and can be lived for a long time; Good host, don't be sad. " The rich man was happy, but all the guests were snickering. Because if you don't stop talking, this is clearly "how long can this house live?" Master is so sad! "
Once upon a time, there was a son who lost his reputation in Sun Shan for many years. He came to Pagoda of Six Harmonies on the Qiantang River and stared at it. In pessimism and disappointment, he wrote a couplet on the tower wall, "Look at the sky every day", but he didn't want to leave an absolute sentence that no one can be right so far. Some people take the words "good", "match", "why" and "ask" out of eternity: "A good woman is born, who can match at the door?"
Couplets are a unique art form handed down from our ancestors, which can be called: broad and profound.