Arnold: "Culture is, or should be, the study and pursuit of perfection; The perfection pursued by culture takes beauty and wisdom as the main qualities. ”
There are many traditional cultures that have been handed down from ancient China to the present, and these traditional cultures are all treasures of our country, and it is also the testimony of these traditional cultures that can better reflect the long history of the Chinese nation. Therefore, for these traditional cultures, our country has always carried forward the attitude of inheritance, and we also hope to create more cultural forms in the new social environment. Culture comes in many forms, including folk proverbs, poetry and songs, as well as couplets.
1. It is not easy to pair up
Regarding couplets, I think everyone is no stranger, especially in our Spring Festival, every household will post Spring Festival. Pasting the Spring Festival represents that we are welcoming the arrival of the Spring Festival, ushering in this family reunion day, and also allowing a year's toil and hard work to be relaxed at this moment. In fact, the Spring League is also to celebrate the Spring Festival, will get this name, in fact, the Spring League is also the couplet. Couplets may not be very common today, and probably only a few people will write their own couplets, and the same is true for most people who buy the couplets, and they rarely spend time writing a pair of couplets themselves, let alone the couplets they made themselves.
But for the ancients, pairs are a common thing to do, the ancients love to chant poetry, especially in some meetings or gatherings, often chant poems and lyrics, couplets are also one of the ways of entertainment. Although the couplet looks relatively simple, it is not so easy to be right and brilliant. Pairs can also reflect a person's true cultural level, and some couplets have a deeper meaning, depending on whether the couplet can see it. In the Qing Dynasty, there were two famous officials who paired a couplet, and they were He Yan and Ji Xiaolan. He Yan shanglian "three pounds of four two five flower meat", Ji Xiaolan qiao to the lower link, although it seems to be very clever, but dug a pit for He Yan.
2. Pairs with Ji Xiaolan
He Yan and Ji Xiaolan must be no stranger to all of us, even if we have not specifically understood these two Qing Dynasty ministers, but about the TV series of He Yan and Ji Xiaolan, I am afraid that everyone has seen it, so they are still familiar with these two images. In history, there were not many contacts between He Yan and Ji Xiaolan, and this story about the couplet between He Yan and Ji Xiaolan was inseparable from the Qianlong Emperor. Because it was when the Qianlong Emperor invited the two of them to dinner, He Yan would suddenly think of this couplet, in order to make the Qianlong Emperor eat this meal happily and enjoy it, He Yan wanted to use the couplet to bo jun and smile.
The upper link opposite He yan is "three pounds of four two pork belly", which also stems from a dish of pork belly on the dinner table, which makes He Yan feel it. However, this upper line looks relatively simple, even unremarkable, but it is not only a number but also a correspondence between the two, which is very clever. At that time, there was Ji Xiaolan at the dinner table, Ji Xiaolan had always been a person who was outstanding, and Qianlong also wanted to see what kind of couplet Ji Xiaolan could match. After some thought, Ji Xiaolan did not hesitate to go out of the lower link, that is, "five two six money and seven onions". At first glance, it seems that this couplet is very good, whether it is an uplink or a downlink, the numbers between the two can be linked. But on a closer look, Washu found something was wrong.
3. Corruption caused by the couplet
Why is it that there is something wrong with the downlink made by Ji Xiaolan? If you simply look at the numbers, you naturally can't find anything wrong, after all, 345 and 567 can be linked together. However, if you carefully analyze the meaning of each sentence, you can see a hint. "Three pounds of four two five-flower meat", which refers to the amount of pork belly, and it is understandable to use three pounds and four two to describe it. But if you say "five two six dollars and seven onions", it seems that something is wrong, after all, if seven onions cost five or two or six dollars, then the price is too high, I am afraid that no one can accept it. Although the ancient market was not as good as today, it would rely on various means to regulate, but for the basic price, the government would still have a regulation, otherwise the market would also affect the country and society once it was chaotic.
Therefore, no matter in what era, it is unrealistic to buy seven onions with five or two or six dollars. Therefore, He Yan also questioned Ji Xiaolan at the first time, but He Yan did not expect that Ji Xiaolan was pushing him into the fire pit. Because Ji Xiaolan later took out the ledger, which recorded the ingredients purchased by the imperial dining room in the imperial court, including the number of purchases and the amount of purchases. Five, two or six dollars is indeed very exaggerated, but in this ledger, it is clearly written. As soon as this sentence was said, the Qianlong Emperor suddenly understood that this was a fraudulent ledger, and the real money had already entered Hezhen's own pocket.
We all know that Hezhen was a major corrupt official in ancient China, and embezzling money for the purchase of ingredients must be only one of the small things. This thing also reflects the charm of the couplet from the side, and the ability to react to the pair, and a good couplet can develop precisely because of such a person.