Couplets, one of the traditional cultures of the Han people, also known as 楹聯 or pairs, are dual sentences written on paper, cloth or carved on bamboo, wood, and pillars.
Couplets are neat and tidy, flat and harmonious, word by word, one sound, is a unique art form of the Chinese language, and the couplet is a treasure of the traditional culture of the Han Chinese people.
▌ Pair of sons and daughters-in-law
Cheng Minzheng of the Ming Dynasty was extremely talented and was recommended to Beijing when he was more than ten years old.
Li Xian, the prime minister, wanted to recruit him as a son-in-law, so he pointed to the fruit on the case and said to Cheng at a banquet:
Lotus (Ho) and Lotus (Even)
Cheng understood Li's intentions and replied:
There are apricots (fortunate) no plum (media)
Li then decided to ration his daughter Xu to Cheng.
▌ Eunuchs are not interested in self-pleading
During the Ming Jiajing period, there was a eunuch who went to Zhejiang on business,
One day, he drank wine with the two households in the north and south, and the battle force took advantage of the drunkenness to speak:
South Pipe North Pass, North Pipe South Pass,
One hand, one hand, one hand,
Suffer from the hard work of the merchant Jia Jia in all directions.
A gentleman who drank with him hugged the injustice:
Forefoot back door, back palm front door,
A thousand prostrations, a thousand prostrations,
Shouted a few times Grandpa Niangniang stood around.
Shanglian exposed Hu Cao's corrupt and perverted the law, and Xialian ridiculed eunuchs for selling themselves for glory, which was a pleasant read.
▌ Unwinding the landlord
Xie Jin's family was poor, and his family was in a bamboo forest of landlords, so he made a sub-couplet:
Doors to a thousand poles of bamboo
The family has a collection of 10,000 books
The landlord was not pleased, so he cut the bamboo short and changed it to:
The door is short against a thousand poles of bamboo
The family has a long collection of 10,000 volumes
The landlord was even more upset, and cut all the bamboo, and then changed it:
The door is short on a thousand bamboo poles
The family collection of 10,000 books is long
▌ Tang Yin mocked the businessman
One day, a businessman asked Tang Bohu to write a couplet, and Tang gladly waved it:
Business is like spring
The source of wealth is like a stream of water
The merchant saw that the taste of Lian Fa Cai was not strong, and When Tang Bohu saw that he was a layman, he wrote another line of ridicule:
The business in front of the door is like a summer night mosquito team coming in and out
At night, the copper coin will be like the winter lice touching more and more
Who knows, the businessman is very fond of this unusual couplet.
▌ Su family brothers and sisters jokingly answered correctly
One day, Su Dongpo invited Huang Tingjian to come to his home as a guest.
Huang arrived outside the door, Su was busy going out to greet him, and the two of them chatted under the willow tree next to the door. Su Xiaomei, who was catching lice in front of the window, saw this scene and joked:
Brother outside the door invited to double month
Su Dongpo smiled at yue:
Little sister catches half wind in front of the window
"Double Moon" means "friend", "Half Wind" ("Wind" traditionally as "Wind") refers to "lice", interesting and humorous.
▌"Just"
The Song dynasty Hong Pingzhai liked to use the word "only" in his articles.
One year, he wrote to the emperor to impeach the current prime minister for power and bribery, and the song chapter had this sentence:
Recruiting power and bribery, relying on the situation as a threat.
As a result, not only failed to "overthrow" the prime minister, but was hated by the prime minister and remained idle for ten years.
Hong Pingzhai was indignant, so he wrote a couplet on the door of his home:
The word "Zhihu" was not obtained
Just because "just" ten years of idleness
▌ "Better not to say" and "Why say more"
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there was a chief officer in a certain county who liked to discuss the rights and wrongs of his superiors and criticize the shortcomings of the times.
One day, a royal historian in the court inspected the county court, and someone reported the matter, and the imperial history summoned the chief officer to reprimand him, and angrily said that he had joined forces:
He who speaks of man is said by the man who speaks of man
Everyone is said, it is better not to say
The principal listened to the psychological disobedience and answered the link tit-for-tat:
The officer of the steward is under the authority of the steward
Officials are in charge, so why bother?
▌ Dongpo and the Buddha Seal are associated
One day, the Buddha Seal talked about Buddhism to Dongpo,
Su Xiaomei, who was lying behind the curtain, saw that the Buddha seal said the Dharma to a god, so she wanted to "shadow" this monk "silently", so she asked the maid to take it out and give it to Su Dongpo.
Dongpo took a look at it and laughed loudly, and the upper link was:
Man was once a monk
Man can become a Buddha
Dongpo handed the upper link to the Buddha Seal, and the Buddha Seal pondered for a moment before facing the lower link:
A woman is a
A woman may also be called a slave
Lianzhong uses the technique of spelling out the shapes of Chinese characters, or dividing or combining into a combination, that is, analyzing the characters, which is very clever.
▌ Wang Xizhi's couplet
Chinese New Year's Eve a year, the couplet at the gate of the Wang family was posted several times by someone who was exposed.
Wang Xinsheng had a plan and posted a pair of couplets:
Bliss is incomparable
Complete one's misery
This couplet is not lucky and no one has revealed it.
In the early hours of the next day, he asked his son to dedicate a tail to the couplet, for:
Blessed is the day of the unparalleled future
The misfortune is not the only way to go last night
▌ Xiucai "earns" rice noodles
Xiucai entered Beijing to catch the exam, and the coils were exhausted,
The shop owner wants him to go out for free, and see xiu only eat rice noodles, out:
Eight knives decimeter flour
Show talent to:
Qianli Heavy (Middle) Jin Zhong
This is a word puzzle, the middle gold chung is the meaning of the list, auspicious good color head.
The copyright of the graphic belongs to the original author
Minglun College - "Top Ten Chinese Studies Educational Institutions in China"