Couplets are one of the traditional Chinese cultures, as Chinese almost there can see the existence of couplets, for example, in the New Year's Festival, the doors of each family should be pasted on the couplet, the old birthday star should also be posted on the door to wish the birthday of the couplet, in the ancient literati when drinking and chatting also love to write couplets. In short, couplets have almost been passed down as a unique art to every aspect of our lives.
Couplets first originated in the Three Kingdoms period, during the Hongwu period (1368-1399), Jiangxi Luling once unearthed a large iron cross, after identification of this cross is the Three Kingdoms period, on this iron cross is written a beautiful couplet: "The four seas celebrate Anlan, the iron pillar treasure light left the cross; the people are huai Daze, the golden furnace incense seal is thousands of autumns." ”
The excavation of this couplet caused a great sensation, because zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was very fond of couplets, and even often rewarded good officials with heavy gold. Naturally, couplets have become a phenomenon-level culture, and the classic couplets have been heard in the world, but the few numbers can often be all-encompassing.
In the West Lake District of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, there is a thousand-year-old temple called Lingyin Temple, Lingyin Temple was founded in the first year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (326), has a history of 1700 years, built by the West Indian monk Huili monk, Huili monk first came to China, saw the beautiful mountain rock in Hangzhou quite aura, so he built the Lingyin Temple.
However, after experiencing wind and frost, the Lingyin Temple gradually declined, and during the Five Dynasties Period, the Wuyue King Qian Wei ordered the Yongming Longevity Master to revive and develop, and gave it the name Lingyin New Temple, which was known as one of the "Five Mountains" of Zen Buddhism in Jiangnan during the Song Ning Sect Jiading Period. During the reign of Qing Shunzhi, the famous zen monk De monk Abbot Lingyin, Lingyin Temple was further developed, and the scale has become the largest temple in the southeast region.
People come to Lingyin Temple in addition to burning incense to worship the Buddha, but also can feel the Lingyin Temple after a thousand years of cultural area, here has long been not only a Buddhist hall, everywhere is full of Chinese cultural atmosphere, for example, in the Lingyin Temple there is an ancient couplet, has been hung for more than 1700 years.
This couplet and the temple together with the Buddha lamp incense, edified for more than 1700 years, has become a cultural relic, this short couplet contains the Buddhist philosophy, to keep countless people out of the predicament of life, this couplet is: "Life can be more proud, everything is only half satisfactory." ”
The core of this couplet lies in the word "half", where in the world can everything go smoothly? It is just a personal greed, a person who is healthy wants to be rich, who wants power when he is rich, who wants supreme glory when he has power, but in the end he often loses even the most basic health.
When you grasp the scale of "half", it is easy to cultivate the wisdom of mastery and grasp the size that you can grasp. The Qing Dynasty scholar Li Mian once had the feeling to write such a "half and a half song": "See through the floating life more than half, half of the use is boundless." Half of the years are idle, half a mile is wide"
Confucius also once said: "The instrument of sitting, the virtual is the one, the middle is correct, the full is covered", the reason is very simple, the water is full and covered, the moon is profitable and the loss, and the humble and humble valley can be truly confident and accessible. There is no complete life in the world, when you learn to be in the house, but you get leisure. In an incomplete life, manage a complete heart.