The couplets are different in length, with only one or two words short; It can be hundreds of words long. There are various forms of couplets, such as right, opposition, flowing pair, couplet pair and set sentence equivalence. However, no matter what kind of couplets are used and what form they are used, they must have the following characteristics:

1. The number of words should be equal and the sentence breaks should be consistent. In addition to deliberately leaving the position of a word to achieve a certain effect, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be the same, no more or less.

2. Be even and even, and have a harmonious tone. The traditional habit is to "pucker up and fall flat", that is, the ending of the last sentence in the upper couplet is puckered up, and the ending of the last sentence in the lower couplet is flat.

3. The main parts of speech are relative and in the same position. Generally called "virtual to virtual, real to real", it means noun to noun, verb to verb, adjective to adjective, quantifier to quantifier, adverb to adverb, and the relative words must be in the same position.

4. Be content-related, and connect up and down. The meanings of the upper and lower links must be connected with each other, but they cannot be repeated.

In addition, the traditional method 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 the center of couplets. Good horizontal criticism can make the finishing point and complement each other in couplets.

Extended materials:

Uniqueness and universality of couplets

People generally think that couplets are the most unique literary form in China. Where is its uniqueness? Mainly in structure and language. Couplets can be called "dual structure" style. A standard couplet is always composed of two opposing parts. The former part is called "couplet", which is also called "sentence", "antithesis" and "antithesis". The latter part is called "bottom couplet", also called "antithesis", "antithesis" and "antithesis". The two parts are in pairs.

Of course, many couplets, especially those hanging in writing, have horizontal comments in addition to the upper couplet and the lower couplet.

Horizontal criticism is an organic part of this kind of antithetical couplets. It is often a word that is summative, makes the finishing point or is in line with the antithetical couplets, usually four words, but also two, three, five or 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 richness.

The special "language-structure" way of couplets depends entirely on the special nature of Chinese language and its characters. The uniqueness of this "language-structure" makes the creation of couplets different from other literary forms in conception, conception, layout and writing.

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 symmetrical structure.

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