Ancient couplets are interesting
Go quadripartite
Couplets are dual sentences composed of upper and lower couplets, written on paper, or engraved on bamboo and wooden boards, posted and hung on both sides of the court, gallery pillars and gates, commonly known as pairs. The couplet is concise and concise, the rhythm is bright, and the people like to hear it, which is a form of expression of traditional Chinese culture, so it has been popular from ancient times to the present, which has also produced some interesting things.
—— Southern Dragon North Leaping Fish turtle bows its head
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a talented man named Song Xiang in Jiangnan. One year, I traveled to a certain province in the northwest and gathered with local celebrities. One man was not convinced by him, and a couplet laughed at him:
"The east bird flies west, and the phoenix is full of difficult feet,"
——You, the rookie of the East, came to us for what? We have a phoenix full of land here, but we don't have a foothold for you.
Song Xiang immediately responded:
"The southern dragon jumps north, and the fish and turtles of a river bow their heads." I am the dragon of the south, flying to the north, you fish turtle shrimp crab, only in the ditch to look up.
That's enough to say.
- Just because "just" idle for ten years
In the Song Dynasty, there was a literati named Hong Pingzhai who was full of scriptures and liked to use the word "only" in articles, and later became an official in the dynasty.
Once, he wrote to the imperial court and wrote a reprimand to the prime minister: "Recruiting power and bribery, using the situation as a threat." It didn't take long for the prime minister's revenge to come, and he was dismissed and driven home.
After ten years, it was recounted, and Hong was so touched by this that he made a couplet and hung it in the door of his home to express his resentment. The couplet reads:
Did not get the word "zhihu",
Just because "just" ten years of idleness.
My "Zhi Zhi Zhi Ye" did not help me at all; but because of the word "only", I was idle for ten years.
It's pathetic enough.
- "Single Hole Flute" and "Monosing"
Xu Jie, a famous minister in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, went to Wang Jun's house in Suzhou one day to be a guest. When they saw the people there, most of them used a blowing torch to blow fire, and they wanted to make a joke with the king, and they came up with a sentence:
"Wu under the door wind, households blow single hole flute." - People here love to play the flute, but unfortunately the flute is an eye.
That Wang Ao was both a famous courtier and a famous writer. Later, he went to Xu Jie's house and found that many people in the neighborhood played cotton, and the bows that played cotton were all strings. Immediately, I thought I would take revenge on him.
He said, "The couplet you said last time, I got on it." Xu Jie said, "Tell me about it." ”
Wang Ao said without hesitation:
"The scenery between the clouds, everyone drums a monoson." - There are a lot of people who play strings here, but they all play the one-stringed piano.
- It is difficult to buy life with money, and there is no medicine to cure poverty
In the Qing Dynasty, Shangshu Ji Xiaolan, his hometown was directly subordinate to XianXian County. In that place, there were nine disasters in ten years, and the people were very poor, but superstition prevailed.
One year, he received an invitation from his hometown saying that a temple had been built there, and two statues of gods were placed in it, the god of wealth in the left temple and the medicine king in the right temple, and asked him to write a couplet about the gods and hang it on the temple door.
Ji Xiaolan thought about it a little and wrote down ten big words:
It is difficult to buy life with money,
There is no cure for poverty.
Life expectancy is difficult to buy with money, it needs to be maintained in ordinary times; poverty is also incurable, you can only rely on your own hands, please do not rely on the gods for everything.
- Turtles have male and female surnames
In the Manchu Qing Dynasty, there was a custom in the Hanlin Academy, regardless of age, people who went to do things outside had to add an "old" word in front of their titles.
During the Daoguang years, there was a person surnamed Wu who was serving as an inspector in Zhejiang, and a certain Hanlin went to see him, and the inspector surnamed Wu laughed at the Hanlin and said: "Rats are called old no matter how big or small." Alas, no matter how small the rat is, when calling it, it should be preceded by the old word "one".
That Han Lin also reacted very quickly, and immediately replied: "The turtle has a male and female surname Wu." The turtle has a male and a female, but it has the word "Wu" in front of it.
It embarrassed the inspector.
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During the Qing Dynasty, there was a scholar named Wu Shengqin, who did not learn any techniques and accepted bribes.
One year, he was the main examiner of the imperial examination, and there was a poor student who did not give gifts, expecting that he would not be able to win the list, but he still tried it. Although the answer to the volume is very good, in the end it is still the name of The Sun Mountain. So he desperately wrote a plaque on the door of the examination room, embedding the name of the examiner.
Plaque:
Mouth wide open
(The mouth is big for Wu, a metaphor for greed and excess.) ）
couplet:
Can you read with less eyes?
(Tear down the provincial word, have eyes and no pearls, do not know real gold!) ）
Owes Kim An a good name.
(Tear down the Qin character, no money to give gifts, how can you pass the exam?) ）
- Why divide things after death?
There was a man in the Ming Dynasty whose parents died. According to local custom, the father should be buried in the east and the mother in the west. Because I was in a bad mood, things were busy and I got in the wrong direction.
Many people have come up with the idea that they should dig it up and bury it again. At this time, a teaching gentleman stood up and said: "The dead are big, and the earth is safe, and since they have been buried, don't toss it anymore." I'll write you a couplet, and you'll make a stone tablet and stand in front of your parents' graves. ”
His couplet reads:
"Before he was born, he was neither far away from the left nor the right,
Why divide things after death? ”
Written in a natural and reasonable way, fourteen words cleverly solve this thorny problem, and people clap their hands and praise.
—— A series of mockery of the greedy county order
In ancient times, in Luonan, Shaanxi, there was a county order called Lu Dazun, who was corrupt and perverted the law, abused torture, and the people complained.
One year during the Spring Festival, someone posted a couplet on the gate of the county gate:
Horizontal batch:
The road is sparsely populated.
The avenue produces wealth, and the wealth is even cloudy and han is three thousand zhang;
Zungu concocted and killed tens of thousands of Li people.
(Yun Han, high altitude; concocted, fabricated, here refers to the crime of arbitrary fabrication)
The association cleverly embedded the name of Lu Dazun and pointedly pointed out this person's illegal behavior of plundering the people's wealth and persecuting the people.
(April 13, 2021)