Out of personal love for couplets, after Zhu Yuanzhang made Nanjing his capital, before New Year's Eve a year ago, he ordered in the form of the following imperial edict: "Every official's house needs to add a pair of couplets in front of the door, and I will see for myself." In this regard, Chen, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, recorded in Miscellaneous Stories of Zayunlou that Spring Festival couplets began in. Imperial capital Jinling, the imperial edict of New Year's Eve: the home of officials and scholars, there must be a pair of Spring Festival couplets on the door. Sticking Spring Festival couplets has been popular since then.
Zhu Yuanzhang not only ordered people to post Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, but also personally sent Spring Festival couplets to liegeman and Shu Ren. For example, he once wrote a couplet for Xu Da, the first hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty: It is unparalleled to break Luping's first place in ancient and modern times. Zhu Yuanzhang personally wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for an ordinary family. It happened in the year when Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the whole people to post Spring Festival couplets.
As mentioned earlier, Zhu Yuanzhang asked for Spring Festival couplets to be posted, from officials' families to ordinary people, and made it clear that he would check them. On New Year's Eve, Zhu Yuanzhang made a private visit incognito. When he saw that the whole city was covered with Spring Festival couplets praising himself, he was very proud and his interest increased greatly, because no one violated the call. He decided to keep watching it. As he walked, he found that one family had not posted it. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was unhappy, and his entourage hurried to inquire.
The inquirer didn't identify himself, so the family was willing to reveal the truth. It turns out that this is an ordinary family with a job of castrating pigs. No one in the family can write, and no one can help them write in recent years. They are also worried about it. The entourage truthfully reported the situation to Zhu Yuanzhang. Not only was he not angry, but he also personally wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for this family, which read: "Split the road of life and death with both hands and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife."
Although Zhu Yuanzhang's cultural level is not high, this couplet is very good. On the surface, it looks imposing. It even includes the professional characteristics of the castrated pig industry. Everyone was full of praise after reading it. After Zhu Yuanzhang finished writing, he gave it to the butcher and posted it on the door. He also said that he would come back the next day. Before people could thank him, Zhu Yuanzhang had taken people away.
The next morning, Zhu Yuanzhang came to this family again, only to find that what they posted was not written by himself. I think this family is really ungrateful, so I went into the house and asked. When the master saw that it was Zhu Yuanzhang, he knelt down and said, I didn't know the true identity of the emperor yesterday, so please make amends. He also said that the emperor wrote clothes for himself, and he felt very grateful. Zhu Yuanzhang asked, if we know that the Spring Festival couplets were written by the emperor, why not post them? The eunuchs replied that this is the imperial pen of the emperor. They posted it outside, fearing that it would be damaged by the wind and the sun, so they asked someone to frame it and hang it on both sides of the shrine so that they could burn incense and see the holy every day. Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy after hearing this. Not only was he not angry, because he didn't want to post Spring Festival couplets himself, but he also ordered his followers to reward him with thirty taels of silver.