Couplets and plaques are one of the important carriers of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and they are also the characteristic embodiment of the cultural life of the Chinese nation, and play an irreplaceable role in the cultural promotion of the social activity space. Plaques can be seen everywhere in the south of Nanjing, and in the cultural space with Confucius Temple and Qinhuai scenery belt as the core, couplets and plaques have undoubtedly become the "face" of old Nanjing.
Today
Let's follow
The footsteps of Gao Anning, a famous cultural scholar in Nanjing
Walk into the elegant world of couplets and plaques
The couplet first appeared in Nanjing
"In the 17th chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", it was said: '...... The huge scenery, a number of pavilions, no word title, but also feel that it is boring, no matter there are flowers and willows, it can never be colored. Through Jia Zheng's mouth, Cao Xueqin once said that couplets and plaques are the finishing touches of traditional architecture and enhance the unique use of spirit. Gao Anning said.
"In the south of the old city, in the past, people called couplets as pairs, door pairs, and sometimes called spring couplets and couplets together, but in fact, there is a difference between the two. Gao Anning pointed out that, generally speaking, the couplets hanging on the sill pillars of pavilions, platforms, floors, pavilions, pavilions, pavilions, etc., are often called couplets, and the couplets are markers that show the cultural taste of a place and a scene, and most of them must be written by famous calligraphers;
"Nanjing is the birthplace of Chinese couplets. Gao Anning said that the source of the philosophical speculation of couplets comes from the concept of yin and yang duality in the pre-Qin period, the neat battle in language and rhetoric comes from the genres of pun and legal poems, and the original paradigm source and writing method come from the couplet of Liu Xiaoxuan, the minister of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty. Liu Xiaoxuan's sister Liu Lingxian is also a talented couplet, and she also wrote a good couplet of "Falling flowers are still together, and Cong Lan is resurrected".
"Although some historical materials believe that during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the last emperor of the Later Shu Dynasty, Meng Chang, wrote on the peach charm on the door of the bedroom 'New Year's Yuqing, Jiajie Changchun' is the earliest couplet, but in fact, the couplet of the Liu brothers and sisters in the Southern Dynasty was 400 years earlier than Meng Chang's, and as the capital of the Southern Dynasties, Nanjing was the earliest city in China where the couplet appeared. Gao Anning said.
According to legend, the custom of hanging Spring Festival couplets in the south of the old city of Nanjing originated in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, had the title of "Son of Heaven". During the Ming Dynasty, every Chinese New Year's Eve, Zhu Yuanzhang would ask court officials and ordinary people to write a pair of Spring Festival couplets and paste them on the door, and sometimes personally inspect them, and it was under his advocacy that the Spring Festival officially became a cultural symbol of Chinese New Year's Eve and Spring Festival.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Li Yu's "Liweng Couplet" was published in the Mustard Seed Garden Bookstore in the east of Qinhuai Gate, and the book later became a cross-era couplet monograph in the history of Chinese couplets. Gao Anning said that all those who learn the creation of couplets will use "Liweng Couplet Rhyme" as a model, and the whole book is full of single-word pairs, double-word pairs, three-character pairs, five-character pairs, seven-character pairs, and eleven-character pairs, "This is Li Yu's unique contribution to Chinese couplet culture." ”
The plaque of the mustard seed garden is the most innovative
In the south of the old city, the plaque is referred to as "plaque" or "amount", written in large characters, which generally plays a role in enhancing the aura and finishing touch in the building, so it is also called the "eye of architecture".
"Most of China's plaques are rectangular, called banners, and there are very few vertical and special-shaped plaques. Gao Anning said that the best special-shaped plaque should belong to Li Yu's mustard seed garden. "The plaques of the mustard seed garden, most of which are changeable and elegant, are all created by Li Yusuo himself, and are the most innovative ancient Chinese plaques. Taking the 'mustard seed garden' of the gate as an example, it was written by Gong Ding, a literati in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and the square shape of this seal-type plaque was very brilliant at that time. Gao Anning said.
"The art of making plaques is very exquisite. Gao Anning introduced that according to different materials, plaques can be roughly divided into wood, brick and stone. Because the old buildings in the south of the city are all brick and wood construction, most of the plaques are wooden, and the bricks are mostly used in the door and embedded in the wall because of their heavy weight, while the stone plaques are very few.
The plaque book body is mostly used in five fonts, such as Kai, Li, Xing, grass and seal, and for the sake of identification, the grass and seal are generally used less. "The color of the plaque is generally not constant, and solemn occasions are mostly painted with gold and stone green on black ground, and rarely use black characters on white ground; ”
"There are three common plaque functions. Gao Anning said. First, it is the place name plaque represented by the "Jiangnan Gongyuan", "Zunjing Pavilion" and "Kuiguang Pavilion" of the Imperial Examination Museum of Confucius Temple, which has the characteristics of clear location orientation and has practicality; second, it is represented by the large plaque of "Wanshi Table" hanging high on the Dacheng Hall of Confucius Temple, and this kind of plaque is mostly expressed by the government at all levels, which has a clear praise; third, for example, the "Yiran Pavilion" hung in Zhan Yuan, and the famous plaque of Xue Shiyu in the late Qing Dynasty "Stop the boat and listen to the flute", most of them have a strong elegance.
China's Yinglian cities live up to its name
Walking in today's Jiangnan Gongyuan, between the pavilions and pavilions, moving to different scenes, you can see the classic couplet plaques almost everywhere. According to historical records, in the tenth year of Kangxi (1671), Li Yu was entrusted by Tong Shoumin, the political envoy of Jiangsu at that time, to write couplets for the gate of Jiangnan Gongyuan, Yimen, Zhigongtang, Mingyuan Building, Longmen and other places, and most of the couplets of Jiangnan Gongyuan were mostly from Li Yu's hand.
The archway couplet of Jiangnan Gongyuan "ten years of hard work, change the fish and dragon land; a lifetime expectation, flying Luan Fengtian", Mingyuan Building's "moment order is as strict as frost, see the toast prostrate and low, the hustle and bustle is exhausted; the same moon is long, like the people in this place, at a glance" are his representative works.
After the reform and opening up, especially since the new century, Shili Qinhuai has added classic couplets to many scenic spots such as Dongshuiguan, Bailuzhou, Taoyedu, Confucius Temple, Laomendong, etc., and in 2020, Nanjing was also rated as China's couplet city. Gao Anning said.
In Dongshuiguan, read Zhu Yuanzhang's "beautiful mountains, beautiful waters, beautiful winds, beautiful moons, and beautiful places for a thousand autumns; infatuated voices, infatuated dreams, and infatuated people, and several generations of infatuated people", and feel the splendor of the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties; in the Confucius Temple, read the historical style of "the long origin, the poetry and ceremonies, the sun and the moon, the gathering of humanities, the strings, songs, and paintings, and the spring and autumn", and comprehend the profound heritage of the literary capital; in the former residence of Li Xiangjun, read the chivalrous tenderness of "flowers and jade, chivalrous bones and ice hearts", and sighed the noble integrity of Qin Huai Bayan......
Since the early days of the germination of the couplets of the Southern Dynasty
And then to today's old city south of the rhyme
From ancient times to the present day
A long and profound plaque culture
It shows the humanistic charm of "the center of the world".
Source: Jinling Evening News