The year is approaching
It's almost time for every household to post the Chinese New Year League
I believe that everyone is no stranger to the sticker couplet
But pasting couplets is not an easy task
In particular, it is necessary to accurately distinguish between the upper and lower links
There's a lot of learning in that
The content of a couplet is actually very rich
And there's a lot of elegance
How can I post a couplet correctly?
Let's find out with Dr. Ke!
The origin of the New Year's Spring League
When the Han Traditional New Year arrives
People would write the name of the god on the peach board
Hang on the left and right sides of the doorway
These contents later evolved into elaborate dual verses
It is also known as the couplet
As early as the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago, the Spring Festival in the Central Plains hung a "peach stem", also known as a "peach charm". In the Qing Dynasty, Fu Cha Dunchong's "Records of the Yanjing Years" recorded: "The Person who joined the Spring League, that is, Tao Fu Ye. From the traditional Spring Festival, "the sound of firecrackers is removed, the peach symbol is renewed", and the poem of The Song King Anshi, "Thousands of doors and thousands of households are built on the day, always replace the new peach with the old symbol", the relationship between the spring union and the peach symbol can also be seen.
What is a peach charm? According to the Huainanzi, the names of the two gods, Shendi and Yulei, are written on the peach wood board and hung on both sides of the door, and such a door link is a peach charm. In the fifth generation of more than 700 years AD, the Shu Emperor Meng Chang personally wrote "New Year Na Yu Qing, Jia Jie Number Changchun." "Recorded as the earliest pair of spring leagues on the mainland." Since Meng Chang inscribed the peach charm, the literati and bachelors have followed suit, and regarded the title spring league as a graceful thing, so the wind of the title spring link has gradually spread.
In the Song Dynasty, the joint language was not limited to inscription on the peach symbol, and was recommended for use on the pillar, and the posterity was called "Yang Lian". In the Ming Dynasty, the "peach symbol" was truly called "Spring League". According to the Ming Dynasty scholar Chen Yunzhan, "The Gongqing Shishu family, the door must add a pair of Chun Lian, the emperor Wei Xing out of the view." "The emperor's advocacy has made the Spring League more and more prosperous, forming a fashion that has not faded to this day.
How to distinguish between uplinks and downlinks?
Couplets are this form of text
Symmetry of format, phonology, and word meaning
To form such a symmetry
The upper and lower links must be of equal part of speech, relative in content, and in harmony with each other
01
Differentiate according to the level
The couplet pays attention to the flat end, which means that the last word of the upper link must be the sound of the voice, and the last word of the lower link must be the flat sound. 仄声 refers to the general term for the three sounds of up, going and entering in ancient Chinese, and pingsheng refers to the flat sound in ancient Chinese, yinping and yangping in modern Chinese.
Modern Hanyu Pinyin is divided into four sounds, namely Yinping, Yangping, Shangsheng, and Desheng, while the four voices of Ancient Chinese are Pingsheng, Shangsheng, Desheng and Intoso. Part of the phonetic characters in Old Chinese became the Yinping of modern Chinese, and some of them were merged into Yangping.
According to the actual situation, we can also combine the four voice parts of modern Chinese to make a judgment. If the last word of the one-sided couplet is up or down, it is classified as an uplink, and the other side is a downlink. For example, the "color" in the "red luck is the head, the snow plum is colorful in spring; the blue sky spreads its wings, and the purple swallow dreams and adds flowers" in the "color" is the upper sound, which belongs to the upper link; the "flower" is yinping, and the flat sound that belongs to the ancient Chinese belongs to the lower link.
02
Differentiate according to joint intent
When it is impossible to distinguish the upper and lower links according to the level, we have to distinguish them according to the meaning of the couplets. Spring League has a lot of belonging to the zodiac union, according to the zodiac succession, such as "golden crown three shake thousand doors, yellow ears a shake spring" in a couplet, "golden crown" refers to chickens, "yellow ears" is to say dogs, in the zodiac order, zodiac chicken row in front of the zodiac dog, according to this order, you can correspond to the order of the upper and lower links.
03
Differentiate by keyword
What if you encounter a situation that is not a zodiac sign? We have to rely on a keyword or phrase in the union to judge. For example, in the "fireworks only send brilliant years, Rui dogs greet the splendid spring", the upper and lower links can be distinguished according to "talent" and "again"; another such as "Spring Festival Gala Sweet Song Fulfills Good Dreams, The Year Dynasty Joy Cannon Receives the New Day" in a joint, which can be judged according to the "Spring Festival Gala" and "Year Dynasty". Through the order of the keywords in the collocation combination, the corresponding upper and lower links are selected.
How to paste a good couplet?
After distinguishing between the upper and lower links
It's time to start posting couplets
There are two ways to post couplets
The first is the traditional sticking method
The second is the modern sticker method
Traditional stickers
The horizontal batch of traditional couplets is written from right to left, just like ancient books, from right to left. When posting couplets, first paste the banner in the middle of the lintel. Then paste the upper link to the right of the banner (facing the door) and the lower link to the left side of the banner. When posting, the distance between the couplet should be determined according to the length of the couplet, and it should also be noted that the upper and lower sides should be aligned and pasted.
Modern stickers
The modern sticking method mainly supplements a three-column sticking method. At present, the construction form of some private houses is three pillars and two rooms, two doors are juxtaposed, and some people have begun to post three-pillar links. The so-called three-pillar link is composed of a combination of one upper link, two lower links or two upper links and one lower link, which breaks the traditional mode of "one horizontal and two vertical links" of the couplet, and requires "two horizontal and three vertical links".
For example, "green willows waving wonderful pens in the wind; purple swallows singing mud dawning colors; red plums send blessings with spring hui", and banners "welcome spring and receive blessings, spring is full of joy". In this pair of three-pillar joints, "Red Plum Sending Blessings and Chunhui" is the lower link, which should be pasted on the middle column, and "Green Willow Windward Stroke Magic Pen" and "Purple Swallow Mud Singing Dawn" should be pasted on the left and right pillars, respectively, opposite the lower link. There is also the problem of the banner, where the left banner "Greeting Spring and Receiving Blessings" should be read from left to right, while the right banner "Ran Anyi Spring" should be read from right to left.
Sticking couplets is an indispensable part of the Spring Festival tradition
It pins on the good wishes of the working people of China
Dr. Ke shared a lot of tips for pasting spring leagues today
It's about to be the Spring Festival
Friends, let's post the Spring League!
The "New Year goods" of the "New Year of the Year of the HeHu" activity are still being delivered