Spring couplets, also called "door couplets", "spring posts", "couples" and "couples", are a unique Chinese literary form. It depicts the background of the times and expresses good wishes with neat, dual, concise and exquisite words. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household will select a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and paste them on the door to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, in order to increase the festive atmosphere of the festival. Yu Yafei's "Welcoming the New Year" said: "When the joy comes, the red color shines, every household posts Spring Festival couplets; bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year, the wheel of time always moves forward." When Spring Festival couplets are posted on the door of the house, it means that the Spring Festival has officially begun. Traditionally, Spring Festival couplets are written by hand with a brush, but now there are also Spring Festival couplets printed by machines. There are many types of Spring Festival couplets, including street-door pairs, house-door pairs, etc. Each Spring couplet has a horizontal inscription.
In some areas, "Spring couplets" are also the collective name for various spring stickers, while in some areas, strip-shaped, unpaired spring stickers are called spring strips and spring strips. In North Korea, there are names such as Beginning of Spring Bang, Beginning of Spring Book, Beginning of Spring Tie, etc., which are referred to as Chun Bang, Chun Tie, etc.
Spring couplets originated from Taofu (rectangular peach boards hung on both sides of the gate in the Zhou Dynasty). According to "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Etiquette Records", the peach charms are six inches long and three inches wide. The names of the great gods "Shen Tu" and "Yu Lei" are written on the peach wood board. "On the first day of the first lunar month, peach charms are made and placed in the household. They are called fairy trees and are feared by all ghosts." Therefore, "Yanjing Chronicles of the Years" in the Qing Dynasty records: "Spring couplets are also peach charms." During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, in the palace, , someone wrote a couplet on the peach charm. "History of the Song Dynasty: Shu Family" said: Meng Chang, the Lord of Later Shu, ordered the scholar Xin Yinxun to inscribe a mahogany board, "because he is not a craftsman, he wrote the inscription in his Mingbi: 'New Year's greetings, and the festival's name is Changchun'". This is China's first Deputy Spring Festival couplets. Until the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were still called "Taofu". In Wang Anshi's poem, there is a sentence: "Thousands of households are as bright as the sun, always replacing old talismans with new ones." In the Song Dynasty, the peach charms were changed from peach wood boards to paper, called "spring stickers".
It is said that Meng Chang, the king of the Later Shu Kingdom in the Five Dynasties, was a king who liked to be unconventional. On New Year's Eve at the end of 964 AD, he had a whim and asked one of his bachelors named Xin Yinxun to design a mahogany board Two sentences were written on it and hung as peach charms on the door frame of his residence. These two sentences are "New Year's greetings, happy festivals and Changchun". The main idea of ??the first sentence is: In the New Year, we enjoy the legacy of our ancestors. The main idea of ??the second sentence is: The festival heralds the everlasting spring. Since then, the form and content of Taofu have changed, which is not only reflected in the use of parallel couplets to replace "Shen Tu" and "Yulei", but also expanded the connotation of Taofu, not only to ward off evil and disaster, but also to Added content of blessings and wishes. This became China's earliest Spring Festival couplets.
By the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on peach boards. Wang Anshi's poem "Yuan Ri" writes: "The sound of firecrackers eliminates the new year, and the spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu. Thousands of households always replace old talismans with new peaches." It reflects that every New Year's Eve, every household The grand occasion of hanging peach charms (now Spring Festival couplets). At the same time, with the emergence of door gods and the use of red paper to write peach charms, which symbolized happiness and auspiciousness, the mission of the peach charms in the past to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters was gradually transferred to the door gods, and the content of the peach charms evolved to express people's prayers for good luck in the coming year. Good wishes for advent and abundant harvest.
The term "Spring Couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, became the emperor, he liked the pomp and bustle, and also liked the peach charms posted by wealthy families every New Year's Eve, so he wanted to promote it. Before New Year's Eve one year, he issued an imperial edict requiring every household in Jinling to paste Spring Festival couplets written on red paper on the door frame to welcome the New Year. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the Spring Festival couplets incognito from house to house. Whenever he saw a well-written Spring Festival couplet, he was very happy and praised it full of praise. During his inspection, he saw that a family did not post Spring Festival couplets. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry and asked the reason. The attendant replied: "This is a master who is engaged in killing pigs and trimming pigs. They are very busy during the New Year and have not had time to hire someone to write them." Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pens, inks, paper and inkstones and write a couplet for the family: "Cleave the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife." After writing, he continued to patrol. After some time, when Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace after his inspection, he passed by here again and saw that the butcher's house had not posted the Spring Festival couplets written by him, so he asked what was going on. The owner of the family replied respectfully: "This couplet was written by the emperor himself. We hang it high in the middle hall and burn incense to worship it every day." Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy after hearing this and ordered his attendants to reward the family with thirty taels of silver.
It can be seen that the naming and promotion of "Spring Couplets" were only promoted in every household by Zhu Yuanzhang through administrative orders and imperial edicts.