This article is reproduced with permission
Naturalist (ID: bowuzazhi)
At the end of the year, it was time for every household to paste the New Year League at the door. Couplets are a classic word game, but we haven't talked about it all the time — because the content is so rich and elaborate that we need to write a separate article to talk about it in detail.
It is better to choose the day than to hit the sun, just today!
Is your family ready for the Spring Festival?
The door god guards, and the ghosts are buried
The traditional Han New Year is "a day of thousands of households, always exchanging new peaches for old charms" - when Chinese New Year's Eve, people will draw portraits of door gods on peach wood boards, or write their names, hang them on the left and right sides of the door, and use them to drive away evil spirits and pray for blessings.
This is the "peach charm".
Peach charms
Later, the content on the peach board evolved into auspicious words, and then into more elaborate dual verses, which are couplets.
The couplet is also called 楹帖,楹聯, and the "楹" is the pillar near the entrance of the hall.
The couplet posted in the New Year is also called the Spring League.
According to legend, the originator of the couplet is a pair of Spring Leagues: "New Year NaYu Qing, Jia Jie Number Changchun." "The author is Meng Chang, emperor of the Five Dynasties Later Shu. In fact, the history of the couplet or the spring couplet is far earlier than the five generations.
In the Dunhuang testament that Stein snatched away that year, there is a Tang Dynasty joke manuscript "Qi Yan Lu", and on the back is copied a set of couplets such as "Sanyang Shibu, the four orders are initially opened", "Fuqing Chuxin, Shoulu is extended", "Nian Duoqing, the moon and the moon are not disaster-free", which are recorded under the "Year Day" and "Li Chun Day" entries, and the end also states: "The door god guards, and the ghost is buried." Around the door of the book, I am kangya. ”
"Qi Yan Lu"
It can be seen that these couplets should not only be written at the door, but also the New Year's seasonal works, which are veritable spring couplets, and like the door god peach charm, they have the effect of warding off evil spirits.
The Qi Yan Lu was copied in the eleventh year of the Tang Dynasty, and these Spring Couplets undoubtedly predate Meng Chang's works, and are the earliest couplets known today.
How to distinguish between uplinks and downlinks?
Human beings seem to naturally like the beauty of symmetry, our Chinese characters, each word has an independent structure, both shape, sound, meaning of the three elements, so couplet this kind of word game, can achieve the perfect symmetry of format, rhyme, word meaning.
To form such a symmetry, the upper and lower links must have an equal number of words, an equivalent part of speech, the same structure, a relative content, and a flat and contiguous connection.
Couplets are not only written on paper and posted, but also directly engraved on the door or doorpost, in addition to expressing the meaning of auspicious blessings, you can also write self-encouragement, Mingzhi aphorisms.
With the change of language, nowadays people write couplets, and it is difficult to match the level of each word. However, the last word of the joint sentence should at least be one and one flat, which is the so-called "one yin and one yang is the way".
The last word of the upper link is the slang sound, the last word of the lower link is the flat sound, figure this out, you will never hang the upper and lower link back. (Simply put, in Hanyu Pinyin, one or two sounds are flat sounds, and three or four sounds are 仄 sounds.) ）
Yunnan Kunming Daguanlou, the most famous is its "world's first long link", the upper and lower links have 90 words each, almost the volume of an essay, the battle is neat, the use of classics is appropriate, the words are beautiful, is the qianlong period of the famous scholar Sun Qiweng works.
"Five hundred miles of Dianchi Lake rushed to the bottom of the eyes, draped on the shore, and the joy was vast and boundless. Look: East Dragon, West Spirit, North Winding, South Xiang Miaosu. Why don't you choose to win and ascend. Take advantage of the crab island Luozhou, comb and wrap the wind and mist sideburns; more apples and reeds, dotted with some green feathers Danxia, Mo Lonely: four fragrant rice, ten thousand acres of clear sand, nine summer hibiscus, three spring willows.
Thousands of years of the past into the heart, the wine is empty, sighing heroes who are there? Thoughts: Han Xi Lou Ship, Tang Biao Iron Pillar, Song Wielding Jade Axe, Yuan Span Leather Bag. Wei Liefenggong struggled to move the mountain. All the beaded curtains painted the building, and they could not reach the twilight rain and clouds; they broke the remnants of the monument, and they were all paid with the smoke falling. Only win: a few pestles to thin the bell, half a river fishing fire, two rows of autumn geese, a pillow of frost. ”
Couplets emphasize duality, but it does not mean that the sentence of the couplet is a couplet. There is a story in "The New Language of the World": the Western Jin Dynasty literary artists Lu Yun and Xun Yin met for the first time, and Lu Yun introduced himself: "Lu Shilong between the clouds." Xun Yin responded, "Xun Minghe under the sun." ”
Lu Yun character Shi Long, Xun Yin character Minghe, the two words just happened to be on the right; Lu Yun was born in Songjiang Province (now Shanghai area), in order to match his own characters, he used Songjiang's nickname "Cloud", Xun Yin was also very good, and immediately used the beijing nickname "Sunxia" to cooperate, so it became a literary story.
Some people think that this is the earliest couplet, in fact, although these two sentences are cleverly opposed, they are only clever in the conversation, purely coincidental, and are not used to post, so they are not called couplets.
Yuelu Academy, a thousand-year-old school in Changsha, Hunan, the main gate of "Only Chu has talent, Yu Si is sheng" is a collection of sentences, the upper link is from the "Left Transmission", the lower link is from the "Analects", the meaning is seamless, but the Ping Shu is not completely compliant.
Tsinghua Entrance Exam Couplet?
In 1923, in the entrance examination of the Chinese Liberal Arts Department of Tsinghua University, the historian Chen Yinke came up with a famous question: Shanglian is a "Sun Xinger", requiring candidates to join the lower lian, and as a result, many people submitted white papers.
At that time, it was the period of the vernacular literature movement, so some people criticized Tsinghua University, saying that the school should not use the old style of couplets to embarrass candidates. In this regard, Chen Yinke explained: "In fact, the couplet is the easiest to detect the student's Chinese language level, this question has only three words, but it contains many aspects such as word form, flatness, virtual reality, etc., and it is really difficult to answer it thoroughly."
At that time, only one candidate gave a wonderful answer: "Zu Chongzhi".
"Sun Xinger" "Zu ChongZhi"
The upper and lower links are all personal names, and "ancestor" and "grandson" are opposite, "line" and "rush" are verbs, and "person" and "of" are all imaginary words. From the semantics of the sentence, it can also constitute a warm picture of the grandchild toddler and the grandfather nervously rushing over to protect it.
Mr. Chen's standard answer is "Hu Shizhi." He actually came up with this question, in fact, he was inspired by Su Dongpo's poem "I was afraid that I was a Lu Xinger in my previous life, and I learned to hu Han retreat" later.
Han Retreat is Han Yu, Lu Xing is the Zen Six Ancestors Huineng, Retreat and Xing, and the one with can be opposed, and the surnames of the two can also be grouped ("Han Lu" is another name for a dog). Similarly, "Hu Sun" plus the anti-dog side, becomes the "monkey", that is, the monkey, so Chen Yinke's problem is a clever joke with Hu Shizhi, who advocates vernacular literature.
Premium Couplet Awards
The tradition of exorcising ghosts and praying for blessings arose in the New Year, and later gradually developed - red and white celebrations, the opening of shops, the establishment of institutions, the advent of nostalgia, the evaluation of current events... It can be seen on all kinds of occasions.
Among them, there is no shortage of ingenious masterpieces, and today I will take you to enjoy a few.
Hi-Link
33, 66 New Wives of The Old Man, 99 New Wives
White-haired pairs of red faces, white-haired red eyebrows
When Xiong Xiling, the premier of the Republic of China, married Mao Yanwen, a 33-year-old talented woman, at the age of 66, someone made a happy couplet, using the age of the two to skillfully synthesize the meaning of "long and long".
Bang Tie
It is the God of Freedom in China, the Three People and Five Powers, who overthrew the authoritarian situation of history for thousands of years
May the deceased after my death work together to accomplish one or two unfinished deeds of mr. Li
Cai Yuanpei pulled Sun Yat-sen into the Union. Hanging at funerals, the link is usually a high summary of the deceased's life experiences and achievements. This link is a praise for Sun Yat-sen, and the lower link is an encouragement to the living, and it is in line with Mr. Sun's last words that "the revolution has not yet succeeded, and comrades still need to work hard."
Business Association
In the same boat, only to ask for fewer people to be sick
Kindness and harmony, do not worry about medicine and dust
The long-established Tongrentang Pharmacy in Beijing not only fits the characteristics of the pharmacy, but also expresses the compassion of the doctors, and even better, the pharmacy sign is hidden in the joint head.
Federation of Agencies
Promote officials and get rich, please go elsewhere
Do not enter the door of greed and fear death
The original Whampoa Army Officer School was connected to the main entrance and was cross-criticized as "Revolutionary Coming". Sun Yat-sen once sent a message to teachers and students at the opening ceremony of the military academy that "in a lifetime, they do not have the psychology of being promoted to officials and getting rich, and they only know the cause of saving the country and the people." This lianhua used the content of his speech, and the text was straightforward and bloody.
United Points of Interest and Monuments
When the yellow crane comes back, and puts the golden bottle by itself, look at the thousand-year-old herb of Zhouzhu
Today, the white clouds are still there, ask who plays the jade flute, and the plum blossoms in May in The River City
The Qing Dynasty talent Song Ji wrote the yellow crane tower inscription, using Cui Hao's "Yellow Crane Tower" poem, as well as Li Bai's famous sentence "The yellow crane tower plays the jade flute, and the plum blossom falls in Jiangcheng in May". Among the various couplets, the Links of Places of Interest and Monuments are mostly from the hands of famous artists, often paying attention to the words and rich cultural connotations, adding a lot of brilliance to the landscape.
Irony
The people are also the same, and the kingdom is also the same
All in all, in general
After Yuan Shikai became the president of the Republic of China, the people spread this association, and the "president of the Republic of China" was hidden, and the language was ironic. Some people also added "What is the division between north and south" at the end of the upper link, and "not a thing" at the end of the lower link, so that the irony became a bright scolding.
Written by | Zaiyu
Some of the images are from | Figureworm creative
WeChat Editor | glad