In the first couplet, the east wind shows the beauty of the universe.
The second couplet, in the spring rain, the scenery of thousands of mountains is new.
Horizontal criticism, purple energy comes from the east.
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Couplets are treasures of traditional Chinese culture.
The couplets hung during the Spring Festival are called Spring Festival couplets. The couplets used to celebrate happy events are called Qing couplets.
Couplets are a national style written using the characteristics of Chinese characters. Generally, they do not need to rhyme (only the couplets in rhymed poetry need to rhyme).
Spring couplets have a long history. According to legend, they originated from Meng Chang, the lord of Shu after the Five Dynasties. His inscription on the peach charms on the door panel of his dormitory: "New Year's greetings, good festivals in Changchun", which is "Inscribed on peach charms" (see "Shu Shu"). This is the earliest couplet in China and also the first Spring Festival couplet. This theory is based on the Qing Dynasty couplet scholar Liang Zhangju's "Couplet Cong Hua" citing "Shu". However, according to the textual research of "Couplet General Theory", Liang Zhangju changed "for his ci skills" to "for his ci skills" when quoting. "Work", the original text of "Shu 梼杌" believes that this couplet was written by Xin Yinxun rather than Meng Chang. Different historical materials from the Song Dynasty have different opinions on this, and some attribute the author to Meng Chang's son. Therefore, who is the author of this couplet is still an unsolved mystery.
Parallel prose and rhymed poetry are the two direct sources of couplets. In the process of its own development, couplets also absorbed the characteristics of ancient poetry, prose, lyrics and music. Therefore, the sentence patterns used in couplets include not only rhymed verse and parallel prose, but also ancient poetry, prose, and imitation of lyrics and music. Different sentence patterns have different applicable rhythms and different leniency and severity. Among them, the regular verse style has the strictest requirements for level and obliqueness, while the ancient verse style has requirements for the level and obliqueness at the end of the sentence, and other positions are unrestricted.
Requirements for couplets
The length of the couplet text varies, the short ones are only one or two words; the long ones can reach hundreds of words. There are various forms of couplets, including positive pairs, negative/negative pairs, running-water pairs, joint-ball pairs, and collection-sentence pairs. But no matter what type of couplets and what form they are used, they must have the following characteristics:
1. The number of words must be equal and the sentences must be consistent. Unless the position of a certain word is intentionally left vacant to achieve a certain effect, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets must be the same, no more and no less.
2. The / level / oblique should be consistent and the tone should be harmonious. The traditional custom is "廄 rise / level / drop", that is, the last word of the first line is in the "Lei" sound, and the last word of the second line is in the "Hing" sound.
3. The parts of speech should be relative and the positions should be the same. It is generally called "Void to Void, Real to Real", that is, noun to noun, verb to verb, adjective to adjective, quantifier to quantifier, adverb to adverb, and relative words must be in the same position.
4. The content should be relevant and connected from top to bottom. The meanings of the upper and lower lines must be connected to each other, but they cannot be repeated.
1. Equivalence of words and sentences.
A couplet consists of two parts: the upper couplet and the lower couplet. The number of sentences in the upper and lower couplets is equal, and the number of words in the corresponding sentences is also equal.
2. Part-of-speech correspondence.
Words in the same position in the syntactic structure of the upper and lower couplets have the same part-of-speech attributes, or conform to the traditional antithesis types.
3. Structural correspondence.
The composition of words in the upper and lower couplets, the coordination of word meanings, the arrangement of word order, the use of function words, and the use of rhetoric are in line with rules or habits and correspond to/balance/balance each other.
4. Rhythm matching.
The flow and rhythm of the upper and lower couplets are consistent. Rhythm can be determined according to the rhythm of the phonetic rhythm "two characters and a section". The rhythm point is in the even position of the words used in the sentence, and a single word occupies a section; it can also be determined according to the semantic rhythm, that is, it has similarities and differences with the rhythm of the phonetic rhythm. For three-character or longer words that should not be split, the rhythm point is always at the last character.
Fifth, /flat/oblique opposition.
The sentences are arranged according to the rhythm of / level / oblique alternation, and the upper and lower lines correspond to the words / level / oblique at the rhythm point. For two unilateral sentences and more than one sentence couplet, each sentence foot is connected in order. The specification of /ping/廄 generally requires the formation of foot replacement, which is traditionally called "/ping/ding/ping/, 廄TOP廄". If it violates the taboo in Article 10 of this General Principle, or affects the coordination of /平/仄 in the sentence, leniency will be applied. The first couplet is pronounced in the flat tone, and the second couplet is pronounced in the /ping/ tone.
6. The combination of form and meaning.
Form contrast, meaning correlation. The contents expressed by the upper and lower couplets are unified in the theme.