Chunlian Roman Money
Author | Zhang Mingxuan
Chunlian, also known as couplets and pairs, is a conjunction posted on door leaf and door frame, and its source comes from the ancient peach symbol and peach board. Song Lu Yuanming's "Miscellaneous Records of the Imperial Dynasty" explains: "The system of peach runes, with a thin wooden plate two or three feet long, three or five inches larger, painted on the top of the gods like foxes and the genus of Bai Ze, the next book left Yu Lei, the right god Di, or write spring words, or write the words of prayer, and the year Dan is even more so." ”
It can be seen that the fox and Bai Ze painted on the peach symbol are the evil god beasts, and the following is written to ward off the evil god lord.
Zong Yi's "Records of the JingChu Years" records: "On the first day of the first month, the peach board was made, called the immortal wood, and the two gods were painted on the left and right, and the left god tea and the right capital were commonly known as the door gods." "But the peach charm is nailed to the ground in front of the door, and the peach plate is on the door of the hanging nail."
The Chronicle of the Ages says: "The present man is a peach stalk with a diameter of seven or eight inches, a middle point, a book to pray for blessings and disasters, and the year dan is nailed to the left and right of the door." "This peach stem is to split the peach stick more than twenty centimeters long into two, write the name of the evil god, and insert the peach wood wedge outside the door." Judging from the above records, it is only a possibility that the couplet originated from the peach symbol or the peach plate, the peach plate painting door god statue hanging on the door, and the peach symbol writing text is inserted on the ground outside the door, so why did the two merge into one and evolve into a couplet?
According to the author's deduction, the Spring League originated from the peach symbol, and the peach rune is an extension of the Chinese Taoist rune culture, and they use a primitive Chinese character symbol with a Taoist incantation to ward off evil spirits. To this day, folk still have the custom of drawing symbols to ward off evil spirits. Both the runes and the hoops are written on yellow paper in dansha; the runes are placed outside the human body, and the hoops are served by the person after incineration.
The Chinese couplet is supposed to be the evolution of Taoist runes, which was formed around the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and was not popular until the Tang and Song dynasties. Considering the Chinese couplet, there is a story:
Jin Dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is exquisite, the name of ancient and modern, at that time has been valued by the people of the time, his ancestral home in Shandong Yaoyao (now Linyi), originally a Western Jin nobleman, and then moved south with the Eastern Jin Dynasty monarchs, living in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the year and the end of the year, the couplet of the self-book "Spring Wind Spring Rain Spring Color, New Year New Year New Scene", pasted on the gate. However, because Wang Xizhi's calligraphy was outstanding, people could not ask for it, so he took advantage of the New Year's Spring Festival to soak it from the gate and remove it.
The next day, Wang Xizhi wrote a couplet of "Warbler Crying North Star, Yan Language Southern Suburb" and pasted it on the door. Unexpectedly, the night was revealed again.
Wang Xizhi was helpless, until Chinese New Year's Eve he asked the next person to paste the red paper on the door first, and after the red paper was all dried, Wang Xizhi let the book boy take out a pen and write four words on the half of the red paper in public, the upper link was "blessing is unmatched", and the lower link is "misfortune is not alone". When everyone looked at it, they all thought it was quite unlucky. Sure enough, no one revealed it again at night.
The next day, when everyone came to the door to pay respects to the New Year, Wang Xizhi added three words "today to the end" under the "Blessings of The Peerless To" and three words "Last Night's Journey" under the "Misfortune Is Not Alone.". In this way, the couplet written in two years is "Blessed to this day, the misfortune is not alone last night." The crowd applauded and even called it wonderful. This is a legend, not a good one.
Or: The couplet began with the Later Shu lord Meng Chang's "New Year Na Yu Qing, Jia Jie Number Changchun", which is the first couplet in China, in fact, this is a later generation of appendages to make up.
Song Dynasty Wang Anshi's "New Year's Day" poem said: "In the sound of firecrackers, one year old is removed, and the spring wind sends warmth into Tu Su." Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old charms. "It can be seen that in the Song Dynasty, people still exchanged the old and the new in the New Year; but the couplets have long appeared, such as Su Shi and Huang Tingjian, who are good at writing couplets, but they have not yet been fashionably pasted on the door.
During the Jin Yuan Period, the peach symbols that originally used peach wood to paint the statues of the gods and yulei gradually evolved into the names of the two gods of "Shendi" and "Yulei", and the peach symbols of The Ancient Gein had to be manually painted by the painters, and many literati could only write and were not good at painting, so they replaced the original peach symbols with the names of the two gods. Later, peach wood was replaced by red paper.
In the Ming Dynasty, the peach charm was renamed "Spring Union" and pasted on the door. According to the Ming Dynasty Chen Yunzhan's "Miscellaneous Sayings of The Cloud Building", "The establishment of the Spring League, since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial capital Jinling, Chinese New Year's Eve before the sudden transmission of the will: Gongqing Shishu's door must add a pair of Spring League, and the emperor appears when he is micro-traveling." Zhu Yuanzhang not only advocated the Spring League, but also liked to compile the Spring League, according to the "Selected Poems of the Ming Dynasty": "Taizu summoned Tao An as a bachelor, and the imperial door was given to him, that is, the national dynasty strategy was unparalleled, and the first hanyuan article." Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's advocacy, the writing of the Spring League has become a common practice, especially some famous literati have become a generation of masters in compiling the Spring League, such as Xie Jin, Ji Xiaolan and others. Zhu Yuanzhang played a great role in popularizing folk couplets, when people wrote on red paper, while the bereaved families used white paper, the following year they switched to green paper or purple paper, and then used red paper after three years of service, while the temple wrote couplets on yellow paper. Because in the Ming and Qing dynasties, culture was not popular, the children of Han Wei could not afford to go to school, and the literati who could read and write were only a minority, so many people asked people to write the Spring League, so there was a new occupation of literati writing the Spring League on behalf of the WaxInge.
The "Records of the Yanjing Dynasty" says: "The Spring League, that is, Tao Fu Ye, since entering the Wax, there are literati and inkers, under the eaves of the city, writing the Spring League, in order to figure out the pen." After the sacrifice, it gradually becomes sticky, and thousands of households are renewed. "The author's father was often asked to write the Spring Festival on the eve of the Spring Festival, but he did not try to polish the pen, just to help the neighbors.
The content of the couplet is nothing more than auspicious words such as Yingchun Nafu and Auspicious Fushou, such as: Fu, Shou, Jubilee, Cai; Tianzeng Years and People Increase Life, Spring Full Of Qiankun Fu Man Gate; Plum Blossom Five Blessings, Bamboo Leaves Zhaosanduo; Tiger Snow Plum Blossom Five, Crane Frost Field Bamboo Leaf Three, and so on. Inside and outside the courtyard door, folklore paste the word "Fu", some people deliberately paste the word "Fu" upside down, meaning "Fu fell", some people jokingly called "upside down Fu word" means that they did not get the blessings outside the body, but pasted their own blessings upside down, the source comes from legends, in fact, illiterate and illiterate, can not distinguish the word Fu is upside down, and paste the word "Fu" upside down. People laughed at their clumsiness, and Fang laughed at himself: "This is a blessing." "Such a clumsy act is really disgusting, and the literate literati scoff at it, which is really not effective enough!" The word Fu means good, upside down on the wall, it is simply dirty and blasphemous. This is the traditional way of writing couplets, but in the 1960s and 1970s, during the "Cultural Revolution", China severely banned the traditional Spring League in the name of "Breaking the Four Olds"; whoever writes couplets must write poems of great people, whether they are right or wrong; or write political slogans for grasping class struggle, or write praises that recall bitterness and sweetness and praise current politics. It was not until the end of the "Cultural Revolution" in 1976 that the people on the mainland resumed their traditional couplets, and many self-edited couplets appeared, for example, someone in a village in Linqu County, Shandong Province, posted a couplet at his doorstep with the words "Red plum peony is placed in the home and worn on the polyester card wool material", which can be seen that the peasants' lives after "going it alone" have been greatly improved than before. Folk spring stickers are mostly three or two days before the Chinese New Year's Eve, and at the latest on the Chinese New Year's Eve.
Roman money, called door money, is cut from five-colored flower paper, pasted on the door, with the wind to display the New Year ornaments, Linqu dialect read "Roman money". It originated from the Chinese Taoist hanging symbol, which was originally a town house to ward off evil spirits, and later evolved into a auspicious ornament for sentences such as Fulu Shouxi and People and Wealth. Because it is quite popular with people, the sales of the Wax Moon Set are excellent, and the red craftsmen specially make door notes, the method of which is to fold the five-color paper or monochrome red paper, one pair of every twenty sheets, five pairs for one aya, with a knife, chisel hollow engraving, and left with hand paper edges, lined with square hole money pattern, swastika pattern, water ripple, under the cut swallowtail and so on. Originally a rune to ward off evil spirits, later generations lost their interpretation of the pronunciation and meaning of the runes, and they thought that it was foreign money as obscure as "Roman characters", so it was called "Roman money". During the Ming and Qing dynasties, door notes were quite popular.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the ultra-"Left" line ruled Chinese mainland, often taking "breaking the four olds" and "criticizing capitalism" as their top priorities, and the door notes sold in the bazaars were confiscated or even torn apart. It was not until after 1980, when people were encouraged to do business, that people openly sold door letters. Lihuabu Village, Linqu County, called Lihuawu in the Ming Dynasty, is a famous Roman money production base in the county.
——This article originally contained Zhang Mingxuan's Haidai festival monograph "Qi Fengduo Language"
Zhang Mingxuan, courtesy name Zhang Weichi, Linqu ren, now working in The Shimenfang Scenic Area of Linqu County, is the inheritor of the Shimenfang Intangible Cultural Heritage Project; he is a member of the Shandong Genealogy Society, a member of the Weifang Writers Association, a member of the Weifang Photographers Association, and a contributor to the literature and history materials of the Linqu County CPPCC; the chief editor of the "Weifang Tourism Series Series" Linqu Volume, Changyi Volume, Zhucheng Volume, Yishan Volume, Weifang Intangible Cultural Heritage Volume; and the Qing Guangxu "Linqu County Chronicle" published by Dian school. His personal monographs have been published in Linqu Famous Scenic History, Shimen Fang Kao, and Three Emperors Temple Chronicle, and the Haidai Festival Customs Examination Monograph "Qi Feng Duo Language" will be published soon.