Introduction to Spring Festival couplets Spring Festival couplets are also called "door-to-door couplets", "spring stickers", "couplets" and "couplets". They depict the background of the times and express good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words, which is a unique literary form in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should select a red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival. The folk custom of posting Spring Festival couplets began in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, loved couplets. He not only wrote by himself, but also often encouraged his officials to write. One year on New Year's Eve, he sent a message: "A pair of Spring Festival couplets must be added to the door of a public official or a scholar." On the first day of the lunar new year, I was very happy to see the Spring Festival couplets that complement each other. When he went to a family and saw there was no Spring Festival couplets on the door, he asked why. It turns out that the owner is a pig killer, and he is worried that he can't find someone to write Spring Festival couplets. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately wrote down the Spring Festival couplets of "split the road of life and death with both hands and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife" and gave them to this family. From this story, we can see that Zhu Yuanzhang strongly advocated Spring Festival couplets, and it was precisely because of his strong advocacy that it promoted the popularity of Spring Festival couplets. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph "Poems on Spring Festival couplets" discussed the origin of Spring Festival couplets and the characteristics of various works. Spring Festival couplets had become a literary and artistic form at that time. There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross-dressing, spring strip and bucket square according to their places of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is attached to the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also called "door leaf", is a square diamond, which is often attached to furniture and screen walls. At the same time, every household should stick the word "Fu" on the door, wall and lintel. Sticking the word "Fu" in the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. According to "Dream of Liang Lu", it is recorded that: "When you are young, you will shop in a department store, draw a door god peach symbol, and celebrate the Spring Festival ..."; "Scholars, big or small, sweep their doors, clean their families, change their door gods, hang Zhong Xu, nail peaches, stick spring cards and offer sacrifices to their ancestors." The "Sticking Spring Card" in this article is the word "Fu" written on red paper. The word "fu" is now interpreted as "happiness", but in the past it meant "good fortune" and "good fortune". Sticking the word "Fu" in the Spring Festival, whether now or in the past, has pinned people's longing for a happy life and wishes for a better future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, the people simply put the word "fu" upside down, indicating that "happiness has fallen" and "blessing has arrived". There is another legend that the word "Fu" is posted upside down among the people. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, used the word "fu" as a secret memory to prepare for murder. In order to eliminate this disaster, the kind-hearted Ma Huanghou made all the families in the city have to put a "blessing" on their doors before dawn. Naturally, no one dared to disobey Ma Huanghou's will, so the word "Fu" was posted on every door. One of the families can't read, so they put the word "Fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to the streets to check and found that every family had posted the word "Fu", and another family had posted the word "Fu" upside down. The emperor was furious when he heard the report, and immediately ordered the body-guard to chop down that house. When Ma Huanghou saw that things were not good, he quickly said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "The family knew that you were visiting today and deliberately pasted the word" Fu "upside down. Doesn't this mean" Fu Dao "?" As soon as the emperor heard the truth, he ordered the release, and a great disaster was finally eliminated. Since then, people have put the word "Fu" upside down, seeking good luck and commemorating Ma Huanghou. There are also people who elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp jumping over the dragon gate, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on. In the past, there was a folk saying that "on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every family wrote big characters". The word "Fu" used to be handwritten, but now it is sold in markets and shops. Literary Interpretation Spring Festival couplets belong to a kind of couplets. Couplets are divided into Spring Festival couplets, birthday couplets, elegiac couplets, door couplets, hall couplets, temple couplets, scenic couplets, commercial couplets, game couplets and so on, and Spring Festival couplets are just one of them. The so-called couplets are the antithetical couplets hung or pasted on the colonnade or doorframe in front of the hall, so couplets are also called couplets. This kind of couplet is an independent style with two strings of equal words, which are opposite to each other and have certain connotations. That is to say, there is no limit to the number of words in the couplet, but it must be equal, the content should be meaningful, the level and level should be in line with the law, and the antithesis should be neat. Those who meet these conditions are couplets, otherwise they are not couplets. Couplets are a long-standing literary form unique to our Chinese nation. It originally originated from peach characters. Peach symbols are two mahogany boards hung on doorframes in ancient China, painted or engraved with figures or handwriting to ward off evil spirits Taofu appeared as early as before Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, every Chinese New Year, there was a custom of hanging or carving Taofu, the great fairy of "shentu" and "Yu Lei", on the left and right of the gate. So why can mahogany avoid disasters and exorcise evil spirits? According to the ancient Chinese myth "Shan Hai Jing", there was a mountain in ancient times that was a ghost world, called the ghost domain. At the gate of this ghost town, there is a big peach tree, the crown of which can cover three thousand miles. There is a golden rooster living on the tree, who is responsible for the daily dawn. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, ghosts who wander at night must return to the ghost domain. On both sides of the gate of Ghost Domain stood two gods named shentu and Yu Lei. If ghosts do unnatural things at night, shentu and Yu Lei will immediately catch them, tie them up with ropes and send them to the tigers, so all ghosts are afraid of shentu and Yu Lei. In this way, the folk custom of using shentu, Yu Lei and Taomu to exorcise evil spirits and avoid disasters spread. They carved the shapes of shentu and Yulei in mahogany, or carved the names of shentu and Yulei on the mahogany board and hung them at their doorways to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. This kind of mahogany board is called "peach symbol". How did the Spring Festival couplets come into being? It is said that Meng Chang, the monarch of Shu after the Five Dynasties, was a monarch who liked to be unconventional. On the New Year's Eve at the end of 964 AD, he had a whim and asked a bachelor named Xin Yinxun to write two sentences on the mahogany board as a peach symbol to hang on the door frame of his living room. These two sentences are "Qing Yu in the New Year, and Changchun in the Jiajie Festival". The main idea of the previous sentence is: the new year enjoys the legacy of the previous generation. The next sentence is to the effect that the festive season indicates that spring is always there. Since then, the form and content of Taofu have changed, which not only shows that parallel couplet has been used to replace "shentu" and "Yu Lei", but also expands the connotation of Taofu, not only to ward off evil spirits and drive away disasters, but also to increase the content of praying and wishing. This became the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China. In the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on mahogany boards. In Wang Anshi's poem "January Day", it is written that "the sound of firecrackers is one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su. Thousands of families always change the new peaches for the old ones, which reflects the grand occasion of hanging peach charms every New Year's Eve. At the same time, with the appearance of door gods and the writing of peach symbols on red paper symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness, the mission of exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters shouldered by the previous peach symbols has gradually shifted to the door gods, and the content of the peach symbols has evolved to express people's good wishes for good fortune and good harvests in the coming year. The word "Spring Festival couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became emperor, he liked ostentation and extravagance, and he also liked the peach symbols posted by large families every New Year's Eve, so he wanted to promote them. Before New Year's Eve one year, he issued an imperial decree requiring every household in Jinling to stick Spring Festival couplets written in red paper on the doorframes to welcome the Spring Festival. On the morning of New Year's Day, Zhu Yuanzhang toured incognito and went door to door to inspect the Spring Festival couplets. Whenever he sees a well-written Spring Festival couplets, he is very happy and full of praise. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he saw a family that didn't put up Spring Festival couplets. He asked why. The attendants replied: This is a master who is engaged in killing pigs and cutting pigs. He is very busy during the New Year and hasn't had time to ask someone to write. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for this family: "Split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife." After writing, I will continue to patrol. After a while, when Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace after his tour, he passed by here again. When he saw that the butcher's house had not been affixed with the Spring Festival couplets he had written, he asked what was going on. The host respectfully replied: "This pair of Spring Festival couplets was written by the emperor himself. We are hanging high in nave and have to burn incense every day." Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy when he heard this, so he ordered his attendants to give the family thirty taels of silver. It can be seen that the name and promotion of "Spring Festival couplets" was promoted in every household by Zhu Yuanzhang's adoption of administrative orders and the promulgation of imperial edicts. With the passage of time, Spring Festival couplets have become a broad concept, and many affiliated categories have appeared. According to the place of use, it can be divided into several types, such as frame pair, cross-dressing, spring strip and bucket square. The "frame pair" is attached to the left and right doorframes, which is our common Spring Festival couplets; "Cross-dressing" is attached to the crossbar of the door, which is the cross-dressing of the Spring Festival couplets; According to different contents, "Spring Strip" is a single text posted in the corresponding place, such as "Look up and see happiness", "Go in and out safely" and "Congratulations on making a fortune" posted in the courtyard during the New Year; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, which is often attached to furniture, single doors or screen walls. The word "Fu" that everyone likes to post upside down during the Spring Festival belongs to this kind of "Dou Jin". If the Spring Festival couplets complex of Chinese people is calculated from Qin and Han Dynasties, the history of posting Spring Festival couplets in China has been two thousand years, so why do Chinese people always have a soft spot for posting Spring Festival couplets? This involves the traditional thinking concept of Chinese people. As the saying goes, "A year's plan lies in spring." Our people have an optimistic thinking concept since ancient times, that is, they hope for the future and pray that the future will bring them good luck. No matter what you are happy, proud or unhappy about in the past year, you always hope that the next year will be better, so when the Spring Festival is coming, posting Spring Festival couplets is just the best choice to achieve this goal. With the help of Spring Festival couplets, they express their joy and happiness in the coming year, or express their expectations and high hopes for the new year. In their traditional concept, it is the most pleasant and auspicious thing to have a good start in a year. Therefore, every Spring Festival, they express their good feelings and a good expectation for the future by posting Spring Festival couplets. At the same time, Chinese people pay great attention to festive, auspicious, lively, eating well, drinking well, wearing new clothes, setting off firecrackers, visiting relatives and friends, etc., which are all reflections of festive psychology, and posting Spring Festival couplets is just an external means to strengthen people's festive psychology and render the atmosphere. The requirement of writing Spring Festival couplets is not only a new style derived from ancient Chinese parallel prose, but also a reference to the traditional literary form of Chinese poetry. It is different from ancient parallel prose and poetry, and it is a unique independent style. Although antithetical sentences in regular poems or parallel prose are often wonderful couplets, they can only be called couplets if they exist independently from regular poems or parallel prose. Its most striking feature is that it is in pairs in form, and the two couplets are "right" to each other, and the contents take care of each other and are closely related. The upper and lower couplets of a couplet must have a complete and unified structure and a clear and concise language. The specific requirements are as follows: first, the number of words in the upper and lower couplet should be equal. For example: "The Spring Festival is rich and prosperous every year, and the good year is safe and step by step." This pair of Spring Festival couplets has seven characters each, and the number of words in the upper and lower couplets is equal, which is the most basic requirement of Spring Festival couplets. But there are also other phenomena. After Yuan Shikai, a national thief, died in 1916, people all over the country rushed to tell each other, rejoicing and dancing. A scholar in Sichuan claimed to go to Beijing to send Yuan Shikai an elegiac couplet. After listening to this, the villagers were amazed and puzzled. They opened the couplets he had written and read: Yuan Shikai, Long live the people of China through the ages. After reading them, people couldn't help laughing. The literati deliberately asked, "What are you laughing at?" A straightforward young man said, "How can the word' Yuan Shikai' in the first part of the League match the word' China people' in the second part?" The scholar laughed at the sound of "Chi" and said, "Yes, Yuan Shikai is sorry for the people of China!" Although this story is about "elegiac couplet", and "elegiac couplet" also belongs to a kind of couplets, which shows that no matter Spring Festival couplets or other couplets, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be equal. If not, it can only be a very individual alternative. Second, the upper and lower conjunctions should be the same, and the parts of speech should be consistent. That is to say, the phrases that make up the upper couplet are several words respectively, and the corresponding phrases of the lower couplet must also be several words respectively. The part of speech of the upper and lower conjunctions means that the category nature of words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., should be arranged equally, both identical and relative. As just listed, "The Spring Festival is rich and prosperous every year, and the good year is safe and step by step." Each couplet is composed of three phrases, namely: Spring Festival-Prosperity-Good Year after Year, Good Year-Peace-Better Life. The upper and lower conjunctions are the same. "Xin" and "Jia" in this pair of Spring Festival couplets are adjectives. Spring, age, wealth and peace are all nouns. Niannian and Bubu are adverbs, and Hao and Gao are verbs. This requirement is mainly to better express the ideological content with symmetrical artistic language. Third, the upper and lower levels should be in harmony. In the expression of couplets, we should pay attention to the relative temperament, that is, the tone is even and flat. This is mainly for the sake of harmonious phonology, scattered ups and downs, pleasing to the ear and powerful. According to legend, Ji Xiaolan once went south to Hangzhou, and a friend gave him a banquet to welcome him. During the dinner, the host and guest answered each other. Ji Xiaolan was quick-witted, and his friends convinced him that he was an orphan in the north. Xiaolan said disapprovingly: "The northern talents are all over the Great Wall; Where does the man's words start? " A friend said, "I went to the north a few years ago and brought a couplet, but no one could match me." Xiaolan was dubious and asked, "Dude, what sentence did you make the other person unable to answer?" His friend read the first couplet: the twin towers are faint, with seven floors in all directions. Ji Xiaolan laughed after listening and said, "It is because they feel disdainful to answer such a simple sentence that they can't be right!" The friend asked inexplicably: "So, how should the bottom line be right?" Ji Xiaolan blurted out: Shake with one hand, five fingers are three long and two short. Hearing this, this friend not only found the bottom line, but also admired Ji Xiaolan's superior intelligence. This pair of "twin towers" is faint, with seven floors in all directions; The antithetical couplets with one hand swaying and five fingers three long and two short achieve the artistic effect of harmony in sound and rhyme, strewn at random and ups and downs, pleasing to the ear and powerful. Fourth, avoid crossing your hands. The so-called "crossing one's hands" is semantic repetition and a waste of pen and ink. For example, the Spring Festival couplets commonly used by merchants in the old days have a pair of words: "Business is booming all over the world, and financial resources are flourishing up to three rivers". This pair of Spring Festival couplets is even and even, and the antithesis is neat, and it is in harmony with the atmosphere of "Congratulations on making a fortune" in the firecrackers, which is very popular in the business community. However, further study will reveal that "connecting the four seas" and "reaching the three rivers" have the same meaning, and the semantics are repeated, so the terminology of couplets is called "crossing hands". Seven words combined with one * * * are only fourteen words, of which six words express the content of three words, which leads to semantic repetition. The couplet is the most concise style in the article, and it is absolutely not allowed to waste pen and ink. In order to provide more information with fewer words, it is necessary to avoid saying the same meaning in two conjunctions. For example, in the Spring Festival couplets, using "Zhen Gan Kun" to "shock the world" and "Fa Xiang Guang" to "Teng Rui Qi" are also semantic repetitions, and they all belong to the problem of crossing their hands. Fifth, choose the cross-dressing of couplets. Cross-dressing, also known as cross-dressing, cross-dressing and cross-linking. In addition to elegiac couplets and birthday couplets, most of them should be used. Cross-dressing is closely related to the content of couplets. A good horizontal shawl can play a icing on the cake. In other words, a horizontal cross is the sublimation of the content of a couplet, the theme of the couplet, and the finishing touch.