Give yourself three lines of poetry, with dreams, wine and distance.
Give someone a flower to save truth, love and soul.
Couplets, one of the traditional cultures in China, also known as couplets or couplets, are antithetical sentences written on paper or cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. The antithesis of couplets is neat and even, which is a unique artistic form of Chinese language. According to legend, couplets originated from Meng Changjun, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. Couplets are the treasures of China traditional culture.
antithetical couplet
Couplets, also known as antithesis, antithesis, spring stickers, Spring Festival couplets, couplets, Taofu and couplets (named after the pillars hanging in halls and houses in ancient times), are a kind of dual literature, which originated from Taofu. It is a antithetical sentence written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. It is a unique art form of Chinese, concise and profound, neat and even, with the same number of words and the same structure.
Legend has it that couplets originated from Meng Chang, a master of Shu in the Five Dynasties. It is a treasure of China traditional culture. Spring Festival couplets are called Spring Festival couplets, funeral couplets are called elegiac couplets, and wedding couplets are called violet couplets. Couplets are a national style written by using the characteristics of Chinese characters, and generally do not need to rhyme (only the antitheses in the rhyme need to rhyme).
Parallel prose and rhyme are two direct sources of couplets. In the process of its own development, couplets have absorbed the characteristics of ancient poems, essays, lyrics and songs. Therefore, the sentence patterns used in couplets include ancient poems, prose sentences and parody sentences in addition to regular poems and parallel prose sentences. Different sentence patterns have different metrical patterns and different leniency. Among them, the sentence pattern of rhythmic poetry is the most strict, while the sentence pattern of ancient verse has no restrictions except at the end of the sentence.
Spring Festival couplets have a long history. It is said that they originated from Meng Chang, the master of Shu after the Five Dynasties. He wrote an inscription on the peach symbol on the door panel of the dormitory: "When the New Year arrives, the number of festivals will be in Changchun", which means the words "Write the peach symbol" (see Shu Lang). This is the earliest couplet in China and the first Spring Festival couplet. [4] This statement is based on the fact that Liang Zhangju, a couplets scientist in Qing Dynasty, quoted Shu Yun's words in Conghua Couplets. However, according to the research of Overview of Couplets, Liang Zhangju changed "the work based on his words" to "the work based on his words", which was different from the historical materials in Song Dynasty. Some people classified the author as the son of Meng Yun. So who is the author of this pair of Spring Festival couplets is still an unsolved case. [5]
antithetical couplet
As a custom, couplets are an important part of China traditional culture. In 2005, the custom of couplets was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in the State Council, China. The custom of couplets is passed down and spread in Chinese-speaking areas and ethnic groups with cultural origins of Chinese characters, which is of great value for promoting Chinese culture.
Historical origin
Couplets are antithetical literature. The parallel symmetry of this language is similar to the so-called "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments" in philosophy. In other words, everything in the world is divided into two halves of yin and yang symmetry, and the essence of thinking is extremely similar. Therefore, we can say that the philosophical origin and deep-seated national cultural psychology of China's couplets are binary concepts of Yin and Yang. The dualism of yin and yang is the basis of China's ancient world outlook. It is the way of thinking of ancient people in China to grasp things with the binary concept of Yin and Yang. This idea of duality of yin and yang has a long history. The divinatory symbols in the Book of Changes are composed of yin and yang, and the Book of Changes says, "One yin and one yang is the Tao." Laozi also said: "Everything is negative and holds Yang, and it is harmonious to rush." ("Lao Zi" Chapter 42. Xunzi thought: "Heaven and earth combine to create everything, and Yin and Yang combine to change." (Xunzi's Book of Rites) Huang Lao's silk book says: "The way of heaven and earth is left and right, yin and yang." This concept of Yin and Yang is not only an abstract concept, but also widely penetrated into the understanding and explanation of everything in nature and human society in ancient China.
The preface to the Book of Changes says, "Where there is heaven and earth, everything is men and women, men and women, couples, fathers and sons, princes and ministers, ups and downs, and manners." In Yi Zhuan, various concrete things are used to symbolize Yin and Yang. Yin represents Kun, earth, female, woman, son, minister, abdomen, lower, north, wind, water, lustre, flowers, black and white, suppleness and so on. Correspondingly, Yang represents dryness, sky, male, husband, father, monarch, head, up, south, thunder, fire, mountain, fruit, red and yellow, vigor and so on. This ubiquitous concept of yin and yang has penetrated into the subconscious of the Chinese nation, thus becoming the collective unconscious of the nation. The concept of yin and yang is manifested in national psychology, and one of the important characteristics is the persistence and infatuation with things in the form of "two" and "pair". The format of couplets is strict and the part of speech is relative. Traditional couplets are connected in form, with the same content, harmonious tone and rigorous antithesis.
Language root-seeking
The most essential feature of a standard couplet is "antithesis". When expressed orally, it is verbal confrontation, and when written, it is verbal confrontation. What is the meaning of language duality? Usually we talk about four items: equal number of words, relative parts of speech, flat and oblique contradictions, and the same syntax. The most important of the four items is that the number of words is equal and the contradiction is flat and oblique. The number of words here is equal, which is different from the "number of words" in English. Its essence is syllable equality. That is, one syllable corresponds to one syllable. In English, the words "car" and "jeep" are equal in number, but not in syllable. In Chinese, "truck" and "jeep" are equal in number and syllable. The reason why Chinese can achieve "syllable" equality is because Chinese is a language with monosyllabic as the basic unit. Syllables, morphemes and characters are trinity. Every syllable in Chinese has a strong independence and has a certain length and tone. In ancient times, there were four tones: flat, rising, going and entering. Now there are rising, falling and rising tones.
antithetical couplet
There are four kinds of tones, which are divided into flat and even tones. Flat confrontation is a contradiction. In this way, between morphemes in Chinese (that is, between words), we can establish an antagonistic relationship with equal words or even equal words. In English, even if the name and concept of things can be relative, the number and part of speech of words can be relative, and the sentence patterns of two sentences can be relative, but their syllables are different in length, weak in independence, free to spell and have no tone, so they can't be relative. Couplets are mostly written in words, often written, hung or engraved on other buildings or objects. So the second level of antithesis of couplets is the so-called literal opposition. The relativity of words means that couplets are both language art and decorative art. As decorative art couplets, it requires neatness and symmetry, giving people a harmonious and symmetrical aesthetic feeling. Chinese characters just have the conditions to achieve neat symmetry, which exists in the form of individual square, square and neat, occupying equal spatial position in writing. It is readable and visible. Its square configuration has both aesthetic principles and mechanical requirements. Whether writing horizontally or vertically, it can be dense, neat and beautiful. English, on the other hand, is a phonetic symbol, and each word has different lengths, and it is only phonetic but not ideographic, and it is even more invisible. It can only be arranged horizontally, not vertically, and it is impossible to achieve true symmetry in form. In the following interview, two Chinese and English antitheses with the same meaning are compared to further explain why only Chinese has a real antithesis, while English and other pinyin characters do not.
Couplets originated in the Qin Dynasty and were called Fu Tao in ancient times. With regard to the earliest couplets in China, Mr. Tan Chan-xue wrote in the fourth issue of Knowledge of Literature and History 199 1 that the earliest couplets in China appeared in the Tang Dynasty. According to the Dunhuang suicide note with volume number Stein 06 10 unearthed from the Tibetan scriptures cave in Mogao grottoes:
Years old: Sanyang began to spread, and the four orders began to open.
Fuqing is new at the beginning, and Shouluyan.
Also: Sanyang returns to the beginning, and the fourth order reaches Kyrgyzstan.
Yan Fu's new day celebrates that life has no boundaries.
Beginning of spring Day: When the copper turbidity begins to celebrate the banquet, the jade method begins to adjust the yang.
In addition to three disasters, Five Blessingg has suffered countless disasters throughout the ages.
Baoji can ward off evil spirits, and Yan Rui can ward off evil spirits.
Beginning of spring □ (Home), Fukiko, Sun Chang.
Also: Sanyang began to spread, and Simeng (Meng) began to open.
Zhao Zhixin, the author of Sound Spectrum, clearly pointed out: "Two sentences are connected, and four sentences are unique (sentences), which began in the Six Dynasties, and the Yuan (original) is not close." Wang Fuzhi said that couplets originated from regular poems, just like "beheading and gouging out feet, harming people's physiology"-Qing history words.
Couplets originated from the symmetry of characters and sounds in China, and appeared before the Zhou Dynasty. With the development of papermaking and calligraphy, couplets have become an independent style.
Couplets are short in form and concise in words, which is not only a vivid artistic expression, but also an excellent cultural heritage. The antithetical couplets were developed on the basis of ancient Fu Tao and antithesis. The earliest couplets in China appeared more than 1000 years ago. According to historical records, on the eve of the Spring Festival in the twenty-seventh year of Zheng Guang (AD 9 * * *), Meng Chang, the master of Houshu, was good at learning couplets on weekdays, so when the new year came, he suddenly made a decree and asked ministers to write antithetical sentences on the "Fu Tao Board" to test his talents. Ministers each wrote a picture and waited patiently for the inspection. Meng Chang looked at them one by one, but he was not satisfied. So he personally put pen to paper and wrote "Qing Yu in the New Year" on the "Fu Tao Board"; The festival number is Changchun. " This is the earliest Spring Festival couplets written by China. The exquisite format of couplets not only has a long history and traditional habits, but also has a unified and fixed format on the basis of widespread use by the masses. From the literary point of view, it is a special style that is more valued and strict in China folk cultural heritage. From the format, it closely combines the characteristics of real life, including two doorframes and a lintel road, and accordingly consists of three parts: the first part, also called sentences; Bottom line: the second sentence, also called antithesis; Banner: Also called horizontal batch or horizontal row. The upper and lower couplets are the main part of couplets, which are both wonderful and indispensable. In addition, in the practical application of couplets, no matter how long the upper and lower couplets are, there are generally no punctuation marks, which is also very particular about the format. But there are exceptions
From the perspective of literary history, antithetical couplets evolved from antithesis in ancient poems. This development process has roughly gone through three stages.
Double stage
The time span is pre-Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In China's ancient poems, some neat antitheses appeared very early. Several ancient ballads that have been handed down to this day have already seen their origins. Such as "digging wells to drink water, ploughing fields to eat", "doing at sunrise and resting at sunset" and so on. In the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, antithetical sentences became more common. There have been some neat sentences in the hexagrams of the Book of Changes, such as: "Those who can see can be lame." ("Lu" hexagram "63"), "Go to heaven first, then go to the ground." (Ming Yi's "Shangliu" hexagram) The neat sentences in Yi Zhuan are more common, such as: "Look up at astronomy and look down at geography." ("Declining Cohesion"), "Correspondence with one voice, seeking with the same spirit, wet water and dry fire, cloud following dragon, wind following tiger ... are all according to their own categories." (Biography in Classical Chinese)
There are many antithetical sentences in The Book of Songs in the Spring and Autumn Period. Liu said in the History of Parallel Prose in China: "The law of opposing ancient and modern times is almost perfect in the Book of Songs." He listed examples of correct name pairs, similar pairs, renju pairs, disyllabic pairs, overlapping pairs and disyllabic pairs. Such as: "Qing Er, leisurely in my heart." ("Zheng Feng Ji Zi") "There are floating elements in the mountains and lotus in the hills." There are many antithetical sentences in the Tao Te Ching. Liu Zeng said: "The arbitration law in Tao Te Ching has undergone great changes, and there have been serial counterparties, uneven counterparties and sub-word counterparties. Some people repeat their words. Anyway, there is something right. " China's parallel prose history is an example: "What you believe is not beautiful, and what you say is not true. Good people don't argue, and debaters are not good. " (Chapter 8 1) "Independence and changelessness, freedom and danger." (Chapter 22) Look at the antitheses in hundred schools of thought's essays. Such as: "full loss, modest benefit." ("Shangshu Wucheng") "Take a fat horse and go into battle lightly." "The Analects of Confucius Yongye") "Honest people are magnanimous, and villains are often sad." (The Analects of Confucius) and so on. Cifu, which arose in the Han Dynasty, is a new style that pays attention to literary talent and rhythm. Duality, a rhetorical device with neat beauty, comparative beauty and beauty, has been widely and consciously used in the creation of Fu. For example, Sima Xiangru's "Zi Xufu" has: "Drumming, starting a bonfire; The car follows the route and rides on the team. "
Parallel coupling stage
Parallel prose originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and flourished in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. As can be seen from the name, parallel prose is a dual style, which is mostly composed of antitheses. The continuous use of such antithetical sentences is also called parallelism or parallelism. In Wen Xin Diao Long Shi Ming, Liu Xie commented that parallel prose is "a hundred words are right, and the price is strange", taking Wang Tengting Preface written by Wang Bo in the early Tang Dynasty as an example;
When Wei is in September, the sequence belongs to Sanqiu. The water is cold and the pool is clear, and the smoke is purple. Yan Yan likes to walk on the road and watch the scenery to worship Afghanistan. Near the Emperor Changzhou, it is the old fairy temple. Mountains and clouds are heavy; Feige is full of blood, and there is no land under it. Heting ancient bamboo, the haunt of poor islands; Gui Dian Lan Gong is the posture of hills.
Embroidered, Yamahara full of vision, Kawasawa full of vision. Yan Lu, the hometown of Zhong Mingding's delicious food; Ge boat maze, green finch Huanglong axis. Clouds selling rain Ji, colorful. Sunset and lonely Qi Fei, autumn waters and sky are the same color. Fishing boats sing late and resound all over the coast of Peng Li; Yan Zhen was stunned by the cold, and his voice broke Hengyang's pu.
They are all composed of antithetical sentences, among which "the sunset and lonely Qi Fei, autumn water and sky are the same color" is an eternal antithetical sentence. This antithesis is the further development of antithesis in ancient poetry, which has the following three characteristics: First, antithesis is no longer purely a rhetorical device, but has become the main metrical requirement of style. Parallel prose has three characteristics, namely, four or six sentence patterns, antithesis and allusions. Second, the number of dual words has certain rules. Mainly "46" sentence pattern and its variant forms. Mainly include: four-character dual, six-character dual, eight-character dual, cross dual and twelve-character dual. Third, the antithesis is quite skillful, but there are many heavy words (such as "Zhi, Er"), and the tone and rhythm of the antithesis are not fully mature.
Legal coupling stage
Duality, the antithesis in metrical poems. This poetic style, also known as modern poetry, was formally formed in the Tang Dynasty. But its origin began in Wei and Jin Dynasties. During the period of Cao Wei, he wrote ten volumes of Sound and five volumes of Rhyme, which separated the clear and turbid sounds from those of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu. In addition, Sun Yan also wrote Er Ya Yi Yin, using the method of anti-tangent phonetic notation. He is the founder of arc tangent. Generally, five-character or seven-character metrical poems are all eight sentences, and there are two couplets in the middle, which are called parallel prose and necklaces. They must be opposite, and the sentence pattern, level and meaning are all relative. This is a standard couple.
Take Du Fu's Ascending the Mountain as an example;
The wind is fast and high, the ape cries sadly, and the birds are circling in the white sand.
The endless trees are rustling leaves, and the Yangtze River is rolling unpredictably.
Li in the sad autumn scenery, a wanderer all the year round, lives alone on the high platform in today's illness.
After all the hardships and hatred, the white hair is full, and the wine glasses are damaged.
The jaw joint and neck joint of this poem, "leaves fall like the waves of a waterfall, and I watch the long river always roll forward." "I came from three thousand miles away. Sad this autumn, with my sorrow for a hundred years, I climbed this high alone "is extremely stable." Far better than the parallel prose dialogues in parallel prose. In addition to five or seven-character poems, Tang poetry also has three rhymes, six rhymes and arranged rhymes, and the couplets in the middle are also antithetical.
Couples also have three characteristics: first, antithesis is the metrical requirement of style; Second, the number of words changed from even sentences to odd sentences, and finally fixed at five or seven words; Third, the antithesis is accurate and stable, and the tone is mature.
Couplet example
One-character couplet
Ink (right) spring
This is the most classic couplet.
The upper part of the word' ink' is the word' black'; The upper part of the word "spring" is the word "white". Each one belongs to a color and has opposite meanings.
The lower half of the two words are' earth' and' water', both of which belong to one of the five elements.
There is another way to align this couplet:
Moby Cypress
Compared with black and white, earth and wood are all five elements.
Double-character couplets
Spring flowers (right) autumn moon
Han Fu (Dui) Chu Ci
Shushan in Xue Hai
Hong Yu (right) Yao Dan
Three-character couplets
Flowers (mirrors) in the underwater moon
Sun Walker (right) Zu Chongzhi (or "Hu Shizhi") [7]
Huaguoshan water curtain cave (right)
Birds try to hide their bows.
Unicorn (right) flounder (double tail)
Four-character couplets
Green mountains are not old (right) and green waters often flow.
Beautiful scenery (right) outstanding people.
Southeast, northwest (right), spring, summer, autumn and winter
Spring returns to the earth (the world)
Dihua Yiying (opposite) Sun Yanzilian (the upper part of the compound word "Yiying" is a double sound, and the lower part of the compound word "Yan Yan" is a rhyme, so the couplet is also a pair of double sounds)
Five-character couplets
The mountains are full of literary spirit (right) and the lake is clear.
Love you, hope to learn from Qin (right), worry about the country and the people, and wish you a rich life.
Soaring for a Millennium in Wan Li.
Semi-submersible China shore (right) bypasses foreign ships.
The bud becomes an island (right), causing clear ripples along the turbidity.
Six-character couplets
Clouds don't know, birds fly out of the hole tired.
Can you do what you want (right) but ask for a clear conscience?
Bamboo rain pine organ rhyme (right) the sound of tea, cigarettes and books on the moon.
There is no doubt that heaven and earth (right) have their own spring and autumn.
Seven-character couplets
Fan (right) studies and leads women's rights protection.
As we all know, there is no false color (right) in rocks, and vegetation has real fragrance.
Lin Bu is happy to be near the cool house (right) and participate in text meditation with the guests.
Wan Li autumn wind blows brocade water (right) Jiuzhong spring scenery drunk Xiantao.
His pen and ink are earth-shattering (right) for ten thousand paintings.
Pine leaves, bamboo leaves, green leaves (right), autumn sounds, geese sounds and cold sounds.
Light a lamp, go to the pavilion, attack books (right), move chairs and play with the moon.
Shuang Fu didn't exist until today. It never rains but it pours last night.
Eight-character couplets
The spirit of mountains and rivers is also pleasantly surprised by the harvest of bosom friend (right) temperament.
There is a Gu Song court at the door, but there is no rock (right).
On the same day in the Qing Dynasty, silk and bamboo sang mountains and rivers together, reflecting daily life.
Cross couplets
Virtuous and talented, rich and harmonious, then cultivate literary music, pay attention to etiquette, and make our people better (right).
Multi-character couplets
The book boy grinds ink and rubs the book boy's pulse (mà). The ink (right) adds coal to Mei Mei and explodes to Mei Mei.
The sea is sinking, and the clouds are long, long, long.
Hibika, Hibika, Hibika are mountains, mountains, mountains, mountains.