Spring Festival couplets originated in Fu Tao (rectangular red boards were hung on both sides of the gate in the Zhou Dynasty). According to the Book of Rites, the peach symbol is six inches long and three inches wide, and the words "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" are written on the mahogany board. "On the first day of the first month, I made a peach symbol for this family and named it Xianmu. All ghosts are afraid of it." Therefore, the Qing Dynasty's "Yanjing Shi Sui Ji" said: "Spring Festival couplets, that is, Fu Tao."
In the Five Dynasties, in the court of West Shu, someone wrote couplets on peach symbols. According to the Records of Shu Family in the History of Song Dynasty, Meng Chang, a master of the later Shu Dynasty, ordered Zhang Xun, a bachelor, to write a poem on the mahogany board, "Because of his non-work, he claimed to write a cloud:' Come in the New Year, celebrate Changchun'", which was the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. Until the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were still called "Fu Tao". There is a saying in Wang Anshi's poem that "thousands of households are the narrowest, and new peaches are always replaced with old ones". In the Song Dynasty, the peach symbol was changed from mahogany board to paper, which was called "Spring Sticker".
In the Ming Dynasty, Fu Tao changed its name to "Spring Festival couplets". In the Ming Dynasty, Chen wrote in Mao Yunlou's Miscellaneous Paintings: "The creation of Spring Festival couplets began with. Jinling, the imperial capital, suddenly issued a decree before New Year's Eve: Spring Festival couplets must be posted at the gates of public officials and scholars' homes. "Zhu Yuanzhang not only went out of the city incognito to see the laughter in person, but also personally wrote Spring Festival couplets. He passed a house and saw that the Spring Festival couplets had not been posted on the door. He went to ask, knowing that it was a castrated pig, and had not asked anyone to write it for him. Zhu Yuanzhang specially wrote Spring Festival couplets for the castrated pig man, which read "Split the road of life and death with both hands and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife". Relevance and humor. After Ming Taizu's advocacy, Spring Festival couplets have since become a custom, which has been passed down to this day.
The folk custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the Song Dynasty and prevailed in the Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, loved couplets. He not only writes by himself, but also often encourages his officials to write. One year on New Year's Eve, he sent a message: "A pair of Spring Festival couplets must be added to the door of public officials or scholars." On New Year's Day, I was very happy to see the Spring Festival couplets that complement each other. He went to a house and saw that there were no Spring Festival couplets on the door, so he asked why. It turns out that the owner kills pigs, and he is worried that no one can write Spring Festival couplets. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately wrote down the Spring Festival couplets of "splitting the road of life and death with both hands and cutting off the root of right and wrong with one knife" and gave them to this family. From this story, we can see that Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously advocated Spring Festival couplets, and it was precisely because of his vigorous advocacy that it promoted the popularization of Spring Festival couplets.
By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph Poetry of Spring Festival couplets discusses the origin of Spring Festival couplets and the characteristics of various works. Spring Festival couplets had become a literary and artistic form at that time.
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, horizontal bar, spring bar and bucket weight 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.
At the same time, every household should put the word "Fu" on the door, wall and lintel. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. According to Dream of Liang Lu, "When I was young, I would visit department stores, draw door gods and spend the Spring Festival ..."; "Scholars, big or small, must sweep the floor, clean the family, change the door gods, hang Zhong Xu, nail peaches, stick spring cards and worship their ancestors." The "spring card" in this article is the word "fu" written on red paper.
The word "fu" is now interpreted as "happiness", but in the past it meant "good luck" and "good luck". No matter now or in the past, the word "Fu" posted in the Spring Festival has pinned people's yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, the people simply turn the word "Fu" upside down to mean "Fu has arrived" and "Fu has arrived".
There is also a legend that the word "fu" is posted upside down among the people. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, took the word "fu" as a secret memory and prepared to kill people. In order to eliminate this disaster, kind Ma Huanghou asked all the families in the city to put "Fu" on their doors before dawn.
Naturally, no one dares to go against Ma Huanghou's will, so the word "Fu" is posted on every door. If one of the families can't read, turn the word "fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to the streets to check and found that every family had posted the word "Fu", and another family had posted the word "Fu" upside down. When the emperor heard the news, he was furious and immediately ordered the body guard to cut down the house. Seeing that something was wrong, Ma Huanghou quickly said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "My family knew that you were visiting today and deliberately put the word' Fu' upside down. Isn't this the meaning of "blessed road"? " When the emperor heard the truth, he ordered his release, and a great disaster was finally eliminated. Since then, people have turned the word "Fu" upside down for good luck and in memory of Ma Huanghou.
Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on. In the past, there was a folk saying that "on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every family wrote big characters". The word "fu" used to be handwritten, but now it is sold in markets and shops.