Ancient China has a long history and a long history of culture, and couplets are one of the unique language and word games. Chinese couplet culture has a history of thousands of years, which can be very simple or difficult, interesting and widely spread.
Every Spring Festival, people still retain the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets. For thousands of years, the small couplets have not only carried the taste of the literati of the past generations, but also reflected the leisure and elegance of ordinary people. So there are many anecdotes about couplets that have been handed down, and the one that I want to share today that reflects the love of a couple is one of them.
There was a scholar named Mai Aixin in the Tang Dynasty, his family was very poor, so he studied hard since he was a child, hoping to change his family background by gaining fame. He married a virtuous and virtuous wife, and the two had a good relationship. However, the road of fate was not smooth, Mai Aixin participated in the imperial examination many times, but he failed, but his wife always supported him and never gave up.
Time flies, Mai Aixin's wife silently adds gray hair, and the youth on her face is gradually eroded by the years. Finally, in a imperial examination, Mai Aixin was named on the gold list and became a distinguished jinshi.
We all know that when a person's status changes, it is easy for the mindset to change with it. Mai Aixin is the same, he began to dislike the wife who has been with him for many years and has been with him through thick and thin, thinking that she is old and no longer the beauty of the year. Mai Aixin looked at his old and decrepit wife, and wanted to marry a young and beautiful woman again.
One day, Mak Ai-sun talked about this matter with a friend after drinking, and the friend suggested that he use a couplet to express his feelings euphemistically. Mai Aixin felt that this method was both ingenious and not hurtful, so after returning home, he wrote the couplet:
"The lotus is ruined, and the fallen leaves return to the roots to become old lotus roots"
Mai Aixin is worthy of being born as a Jinshi, his level of this uplink is indeed very high, and people with a discerning eye can know at a glance that he uses the image of "lotus leaves are ruined, lotus roots are old and ugly", alluding to his wife like a broken flower and a willow, and she is already old. He deliberately placed the upper link in a conspicuous place so that his wife could see it. What he meant was that he hoped that his wife would be interested and marry again.
Sure enough, when his virtuous wife was cleaning up the room, she saw Shanglian and immediately understood her husband's intention to take a concubine. However, Mak Aixin's wife is not an ordinary person. After she saw Shanglian, although she had mixed feelings in her heart, she did not lose her temper.
She quietly picked up the pen and responded with the following sentence:
"The yellow rice is ripe, and the bran is blowing to see the rice and the new grain."
This lower link is not only neat with the upper couplet, but also the homonym between "new grain" and "bride", which has a profound meaning. This sentence euphemistically tells Mai Aixin that although he is getting older, he is like a ripe rice, which is more precious and valuable. As long as the husband appreciates it carefully, he will find her charm, and the so-called "lotus failure" is just an excuse for the husband to like the new and hate the old.
When Mai Aixin saw this couplet, she suddenly woke up from a big dream. He realized that he was ruthless and short-sighted, and was deeply ashamed. He also admired his wife's wisdom and never thought of divorce from his wife. He walked up to his wife, bowed his head and sincerely apologized.
Seeing that her husband had realized his mistake and was willing to correct it, and that he had changed his mind, Mak continued to write below the couplet:
"My husband is very fair."
Mai Aixin also continued to write the next sentence:
"My wife is a mother-in-law".
Since then, the titles "husband" and "wife" have become popular, and Mai Aixin and his wife have walked hand in hand, and this good story has also spread. This story was widely circulated in the Tang Dynasty, and it tells us that true love is not only about youthful faces, but also about mutual understanding and tolerance. In the long river of life, only by supporting and cherishing each other can we go through every spring and autumn together, don't you say?