Couplets, commonly known as couplets, are a wonderful flower of Chinese culture and a unique art form of China people. We generally refer to a style composed of two sentences with the same number of words, antithetical sentences, even and symmetrical phonology, mutual echo of contents and symmetrical arrangement of forms, which is called couplets. We call the above sentence the upper part, the following sentence the lower part, and the upper and lower parts are combined together. Because of its unique form, distinctive language, harmonious phonology, interesting content, far-reaching significance, wide use, up-and-down connection and one go, it has the charm of poetry, coupled with beautiful calligraphy and remarkable posting, and has become an art in art. From its birth to the present, Xian Yi, rich or poor, has always been loved by people of all ethnic groups in China and international friends. From emperors and generals to Li people, regardless of nationality, age and price, they all like to enjoy and use them, which has become a vivid form of major festivals, processions and assemblies, weddings and funerals, repairing rooms, decorating pavilions, expressing passion, pinning ideals, spreading culture and expressing their hearts.
The editorial department of literature and history knowledge of Zhonghua Book Company systematically summarized how to create couplets in the article How to make couplets. As a couplet, it should meet the following rules:
(a) the number of words in the upper and lower parts must be equal, and repeated words cannot be used;
(2) The last sentence of the first couplet must be silent, and the last word of the next couplet must be flat;
(3) The sentence patterns of the upper and lower couplets must be consistent (equivalent parts of speech and corresponding structures);
(4) The horizontal lines of the upper and lower couplets should be relative. Where the upper couplet uses flat sound, the lower couplet must use flat sound, and vice versa (flat: flat sound; Cue, Cue, including three-syllable words);
(5) The upper and lower couplets can have similar or opposite meanings, and they can only say one thing, or they can say two things separately.
The antithesis between couplets and regular poems is related to inheritance and evolution, and the flat and even meter of regular poems and the principle of "whether 135246 is clear" are also applicable to couplets. As for the number of words in each couplet, there is no limit, ranging from four words, five words, six words, seven words, eight words and nine words to tens or hundreds of words, as long as you have something to say.
In short, writing couplets should rhyme harmoniously. The language is concise, consistent with the law and has certain content. Words are not relative, levels and levels are not harmonious, or slogan-style sentences are divided into two lines, which can't be regarded as couplets.
The above contents can be summarized as "four stresses", that is, "word equivalence, flat pronunciation, word opposition and syntactic symmetry". At the same time, the contents of the upper and lower couplets should be related, but they should not be identical or repetitive. Similar antithesis is commonly known as "crossing hands".
The principle that "one, three and five are distinct, and two, four and six are also applicable to couplets" in this paper means that the first, three and five words in each sentence of a five-character seven-character poem are not flat, and the flat and turbid words are flat and turbid. The second, fourth and sixth words of each sentence must be plain and clear, and cannot be replaced. Because the first, third and fifth words are relatively flat and easy to move, the pronunciation has little influence. If the second, fourth and sixth words are flat and unbalanced, it will be difficult to read. This is a taboo for orthographic poetry, and it is also a taboo for traditional couplets when used in the creation of couplets.
There are forty or fifty ways to create couplets. They are: overlapping words, repetition, overlapping, thimble, word analysis (divided into word segmentation and compound words), mosaic, addition and subtraction (divided into adding words, adding strokes and subtracting words), repetition, concealment, omission, ambiguity (divided into answering questions, answering questions and not answering questions), rhetorical questions and puns. Analogy (divided into: imitation, personification), metaphor (divided into: simile, metaphor, metonymy), exaggeration, symmetry, transposition, extreme, intertextuality, irony, leapfrog, search, number, position, function words, couplets, punctuation, inverted sentences, puzzles, easy words, and the same time.
The following are some common methods:
1. Reduplicated words, also known as "repeated words", refer to words composed of two identical words. When people create couplets, they often apply reduplication to the creation of couplets, that is, reduplication. Using overlapping words as couplets can vividly express the artistic conception of couplets, with harmonious pronunciation, clear rhythm and harmonious rhythm, which has the image of expressing feelings, thus enhancing the artistic charm of couplets and obtaining specific expression effects.
Such as: overlapping mountains and winding roads; Under the tall tree, Ding Ding drummed in the spring.
The four adjectives "overlapping, bending, competition and ding-dong" are specially treated by the author. The effect changes greatly, the feeling is clear and the scene is pleasant.
2. thimble method, also known as beading method, takes the last word of the previous sentence or rhythm as the first word of the next sentence or rhythm, so that two syllables or sentences are connected end to end, resulting in the effect of linking up and down, like beading. The couplets created by the Supreme Truth Method should be compact and vivid.
Such as: listening to the rain, living in the rain building, listening to the sound of rain, dripping water, listening, listening, listening;
Watch the tide, watch the tide pavilion, watch the tide waves, watch the tide, watch the tide.
This pair of thimbles has both thimbles in sentences and thimbles between clauses. The word "wonderful use of the first couplet"
Two meanings, "stay" means "stop" and "stay", which combines the fun of listening to the rain and watching the tide with the leap of meaning.
3. The homophonic method is based on the unique homophony of Chinese characters. Different from the homophonic method, it uses several words with different glyphs and meanings but the same pronunciation in the same couplet, which makes the couplet have the artistic charm of exquisite combination, strange conception and interesting. This method sounds no different, and it seems clear at a glance.
Such as: Tianxin pavilion, the pavilion falls pigeons, and the pigeons fly without flying; Land and water continent, continent stops ship, ship can't go to continent.
The words "pigeon", "pigeon", "Zhou" and "Zhou" in this pair of couplets are homonyms.
Make couplets have the pleasure of repeated cycles.
4. Analogy, according to the needs of feelings, the author deliberately compares people with things, or things with people, or says A as B. This method of association is called analogy. Usually, people call the object to be compared as the subject, and the part to be compared as the quasi-body. Using analogy can make couplets more vivid and meaningful. There are two analogy methods: personification and imitation.
Such as: Liu Chunfeng is handy; Pear blossoms are cold and sad.
The author personifies plants and seasons such as willow, spring breeze, pear blossom and cold food, just like they and people in the real world, and places infinite grief on the dead.
Red and purple flowers; Cai Feng flew happily together.
The author compares a newly-married couple to "Red Lotus" and "Cai Feng", because Red Lotus and Cai Feng are symbols of good fortune in people's habitual consciousness, and it is reasonable to compare the newly-married couple in celebration to Red Lotus and Cai Feng, which is also people's aesthetic consciousness.
5. Metaphor, a very important method in rhetoric is metaphor, which can be said to be everywhere, regardless of poetry and prose. Its basic meaning is to explain another more complex and abstract thing and phenomenon in a general and vivid way with familiar and concrete things or phenomena, so as to make it more concrete, vivid and vivid. In the creation of couplets, this rhetorical method is also widely used, which is divided into three forms: simile, metaphor and metonymy.
Such as: learning is like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat; Like a plain horse, it is easier to put it away than to put it away.
The Federation compares "learning" with two specific events: "sailing against the current" and "walking on the plain"
The "mind" is two elusive things, which makes the learning difficult and the mind easy to indulge, making the abstract image concrete, vague and clear, the metaphor appropriate and philosophical.
6. Exaggeration, the purpose of which is to highlight the characteristics of something and skillfully exaggerate or shrink it to create a spectacle effect. If used properly, you can get twice the result with half the effort.
Such as: the sky is a chessboard star, who dares to play; The local area is pipa road, and the strings are strings, which one can play.
This couplet skillfully captures the image characteristics of things, makes a sudden association and makes use of the topic. The author exaggerates.
At the same time, it is indirect exaggeration to highlight the artistic color of couplets with metaphors.
7. Numerals and quantifiers have special meanings in couplets. The functions of couplets composed of quantifiers mainly include: creating images and artistic conception, increasing the difficulty of duality, performing mathematical operations, explaining the combination words of numbers, and constantly embedding natural numbers.
Such as: dry gossip, Kun gossip, 8864 hexagrams, hexagrams dry Kun has been decided;
There are nine sounds of love, nine sounds of phoenix, nine sounds of 998 1, and the sound of husband and wife singing.
This couplet skillfully uses pairs of numbers, the sentence is strangely conceived, the couplet is appropriate, and the multiplication of numbers is reasonable and natural.
In the process of creating couplets, we should not only abide by the above five rules, but also use various methods of creating couplets flexibly. Besides, reading more classical literature books, history books and other books will also improve our ability to create couplets.