origin
It is said that Spring Festival couplets come from the symbol of peach. According to the Book of Rites, the peach symbol is six inches long and three inches wide, and the words "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" are written on the mahogany board. "On the first day of the first month, I made a peach symbol for this family and named it Xianmu. All ghosts are afraid of it." In the Five Dynasties, in the court of West Shu, someone wrote couplets on peach symbols. In the Qing Dynasty, Yanjing Shi Sui Ji said: "Spring Festival couplets are also Fu Tao."
Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" more and more at the beginning of spring, and then it gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets, expressing the good wishes of the working people in China to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome good luck. [ 1] [2]
It is said that this custom originated in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Sticking Spring Festival couplets has become a custom now. Red couplets were posted on the gate, and the room suddenly lit up. Just as the poem says, "Smile with joy, and every household sticks Spring Festival couplets;" Say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and the wheel of time will move forward forever. "
Spring Festival couplets appear in pairs.
In rural areas or small counties, you can often see some Spring Festival couplets written on special colored paper: the first Spring Festival couplets were written on mahogany boards and later rewritten on paper. The color of mahogany is red, which means good luck and avoiding evil spirits, so most Spring Festival couplets are written in red paper. But yellow paper was used in the temple, and the old man at home died. Generally, the younger generation will not stick red Spring Festival couplets for three years from that year, but keep white, green and yellow. Use white paper in the first year, green paper in the second year, yellow paper in the third year, and red paper after the expiration of mourning in the fourth year. Therefore, the couplets of Bai, Lv and Huang San are commonly called "Xiao Lian", "Xiao Lian" or "Ding Youlian". Some places put up yellow couplets in the first year, blue couplets in the second year and green couplets in the third year. Some places simply don't post couplets for three years to express their grief, so it is necessary to post couplets during the Spring Festival.
Spring Festival is celebrated all over the world. Therefore, in addition to posting Spring Festival couplets at all doors, pig houses, chicken and duck houses and other places should also post couplets to symbolize the prosperity of six animals. The format is generally flocks of chickens and ducks, flocks of cattle and sheep, and prosperity of six livestock. There are also immortal couplets: the Spring Festival couplets of "Kitchen God" are: Heaven says good, and the lower bound is auspicious. It means that when Kitchen God reported to the Jade Emperor on the last day, he said many good things, and when he came back from the earth, he was even more auspicious, commonly known as seeing Kitchen God off. The Spring Festival couplets of "Land Lord" are: Bai Yu was born in the soil, and gold is longer than the ground. It means that as long as you work hard, you can gain something on the land. "Heaven and Earth" Spring Festival couplets are: the sky is high and everything is covered, and the land is thick and full of people. The short word 10 covers everything between heaven and earth. The big trees in the yard should be labeled as "trees with roots", the walls in the yard should be labeled as "beautiful spring", the walls beside the kang at home should be labeled as "happiness and health", and the kitchen should be labeled as "thrift".
develop
The earliest Spring Festival couplets recorded by world record association in the world are: "Three Yang begins to spread, and four orders begin to open." This pair of Spring Festival couplets is recorded in the Dunhuang suicide note (volume number Stein 06 10) unearthed in the Tibetan Sutra Cave in Mogao Grottoes. This suicide note records 12 written in the Spring Festival couplets with beginning of spring that year. This couplet is the first couplet, written by Liu in Tang Dynasty. The book was written in the 11th year of Kaiyuan (723), 240 years earlier than the inscription of Meng Chang, the king of Shu. "Sanyang cloth;" "The Four Orders First Open" broke the world record of "Spring Festival in Qing Yu, Spring Festival in Changchun" and was selected as the earliest Spring Festival couplets in world record association, China. The folk custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the Song Dynasty and prevailed in the Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, loved couplets. He not only wrote it himself, but also often encouraged courtiers to write. Zhu Yuanzhang strongly advocated posting couplets. After establishing Jinling (Nanjing) as the capital, he ordered ministers, officials and ordinary people to write a couplet and stick it on the door before New Year's Eve. He wore casual clothes and watched from house to house for fun. Scholars at that time also regarded couplets as elegant enjoyment, and writing Spring Festival couplets became a social fashion. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph "Conghua Couplets" discusses the origin of Spring Festival couplets and the characteristics of various works.
Spring Festival couplets had become a literary and artistic form at that time. There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, horizontal batch, Spring Festival couplets and bucket couplets according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Horizontal batch" is attached to the crossbar of the lintel; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture and screen walls. At the same time, every household should put the word "Fu" on the door, wall and lintel. Sticking the word "Fu" during the Spring Festival is a long-standing folk custom in China. According to "Dream of Liang Lu", "When I was young, I set up a shop, painted peach symbols and celebrated the Spring Festival ..."; "Scholars, big or small, must sweep the floor, clean the family, change the door gods, hang Zhong Kui, nail peaches, stick spring cards and worship their ancestors."
After the Tang Dynasty, besides peace, people also regarded Qin and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill, heard ghosts screaming outside, and stayed up all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by with weapons in their hands, and there was no ghost harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the portraits of the two generals painted on the doors, and this custom began to spread widely among the people in China.
In the Song Dynasty, it was quite common to write couplets on mahogany boards. Wang Anshi wrote in his poem "January Day" that "firecrackers are one year old, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su. Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old ones, which reflects the grand occasion of hanging peach symbols on New Year's Eve (today's Spring Festival couplets). At the same time, with the appearance of the door god and the peach symbol symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness written on red paper, the mission of exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters shouldered by the previous peach symbol has gradually shifted to the door god, and the content of the peach symbol has also evolved into expressing people's good wishes for good luck and good harvest in the coming year.
The History of Shu Family in Song Dynasty says: Meng Chang, the master of the later Shu Dynasty, asked the bachelor Xin to write a poem on the red board. Because there was nothing to do, I wrote a poem on the pretence, saying,' Come to Qing Yu every year to celebrate the festival.' "。 This is China's first Spring Festival couplets. However, different historical materials in the Song Dynasty have different opinions on this, and some say that it was written by Xin or Meng Zhe, the son of Meng Chang. Until the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were still called "Fu Tao". There is a saying in Wang Anshi's poem that "thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old ones." "In the Song Dynasty, the peach characters were changed from red boards to paper, which were called' Spring Sticks' and' Spring Festival couplets'.
The word "Spring Festival couplets" appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was emperor, he liked ostentation and extravagance, and he also liked the peach symbols posted by the big family on New Year's Eve every year, so he wanted to promote them. One year before New Year's Eve, he issued an imperial edict requiring every household in Jinling to stick Spring Festival couplets written in red paper on their doorframes to welcome the Spring Festival. On the morning of New Year's Day, Zhu Yuanzhang made a tour incognito and went door to door to check the Spring Festival couplets. Whenever he sees a well-written Spring Festival couplets, he is very happy and full of praise. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he saw a family that didn't stick Spring Festival couplets. He asked why. The attendant replied, "This is a master who is engaged in killing and cutting pigs. He was so busy during the New Year that he didn't have time to ask someone to write. " Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to bring pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for this family: "Split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut off the root of right and wrong with one knife." After writing, I will continue to patrol. After a period of time, Zhu Yuanzhang passed by here again when he returned to the palace. He saw that the butcher's house had not posted his Spring Festival couplets, so he asked what was going on. The host respectfully replied, "This pair of Spring Festival couplets was written by the emperor himself. We hang high in nave and burn incense every day. " Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy, so he ordered his attendants to give the family thirty taels of silver. It can be seen that the naming and promotion of "Spring Festival couplets" was promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang in every household by means of administrative orders and imperial edicts.
One legend is that ...
According to legend, in Shan Hai Jing, an ancient myth in China, there is a ghost land with a mountain in the middle, a big peach tree covering 3,000 miles, and a golden rooster on the treetop. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people in China carved them into peach trees and put them at the door to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao". In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one for killing evil spirits, the other for expressing good wishes, and the third for decorating the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.
form
The Spring Festival is the "first of a hundred festivals" of the Chinese nation. In the historical civilization of China, there are many customs to celebrate the Spring Festival. Up to now, in China, especially in rural areas, the most widely preserved customs are sticking Spring Festival couplets and sticking door gods.
paste up Spring Festival couplets
Sticking Spring Festival couplets is the first thing for China people to celebrate the Spring Festival. Whenever the Spring Festival approaches, every household will put brand-new Spring Festival couplets on both sides of the gate, with black characters on a red background, which is steady and bright. Express the family's best wishes for the new year, such as "six animals prosper and the grain is abundant"; Or it is related to the chronological culture of the Chinese nation. The names of the zodiac are embedded in the Spring Festival couplets, such as "Rat", "Bull", "Tiger", "Rabbit", "Dragon", "Snake", "Horse" and "Sheep", such as "koi fish flies to Yuan Zhi; Xiangyang feels pro-kindness and so on. Some Spring Festival couplets also focus on reflecting different "happiness views" of different industries and families. Therefore, it is undoubtedly a meaningful way to observe folk customs to carefully study the Spring Festival couplets posted by people during the Spring Festival.
When did the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets begin? So far, there is no accurate material research. But it probably started in the post-Shu period more than 1000 years ago, which can be confirmed in historical records. In addition, according to Wang Zhu Collection and Yanjing Sui Collection, the prototype of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao".
There are many kinds of Spring Festival couplets, which can be divided into door heart, frame pair, cross string, spring strip and bucket square according to the place of use. The "door core" is attached to the center of the upper end of the door panel; The "door frame pair" is attached to the left and right door frames; "Cross-dressing" is posted on the crossbar of the door; "Spring strips" are posted in corresponding places according to different contents; "Dou Jin", also called "door leaf", is a square diamond [3].
colour
The color of couplets is related to local folk customs. What you can usually see is red, which means welcome. In some places, there are white, yellow, purple, green and blue. For example, in Hubei, yellow represents missing relatives who have just passed away, purple-blue represents the second year of offering sacrifices to the deceased, and green represents the third year of offering sacrifices to the deceased. In some places, white represents missing relatives who have just passed away.
meaning
As early as the Warring States period more than two thousand years ago, the Central Plains region hung "peach stalks" on the Spring Festival, also known as "peach symbols". Fu Cha Dunchong's Yanjing Spring Festival couplets in Qing Dynasty recorded: "Spring Festival couplets are also Fu Tao. Since entering the customs, some scholars have written Spring Festival couplets under the eaves of the city in order to moisten their pens. After the sacrifice, it gradually tilted up and thousands of families took on a new look. " Pop away from the traditional Spring Festival couplets; The relationship between Spring Festival couplets and peach symbols can also be seen in Wang Anshi's poem "Everything is Renewed" in the Song Dynasty. "Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old ones."
What is a peach symbol? According to Huainanzi, this "peach symbol" is made of peach wood one inch wide and seven or eight inches long. Write the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board and hang them on both sides of the door. Or draw these two gods-left and right. The ancients used Fu Tao's calligraphy and painting Er Shen to suppress evil spirits. This is also commonly known as the "keeper" in China. In the Five Dynasties of more than 700 AD, Meng Changjun, the queen of Shu, wrote "New Year's Qing Yu, No Festival A". Changchun. " It is the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China.
However, in the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were still called "Fu Tao". Couplets are not only carved on peach symbols, but also pushed on pillars, which are later called "couplets". After the Song Dynasty, Yichun Post Station used couplets to write powder notes. Some people collect the ancient sayings of The Book of Songs, while others collect Tang and Song poems. According to legend, there is Wang Li's Spring Festival couplets: "The northern country is vast, and thousands of doors are fresh." This is the Spring Festival couplets hanging on people's teeth and cheeks.
Fu Tao was really called Spring Festival couplets in the Ming Dynasty. According to Ming Dynasty scholar Chen, "Spring Festival couplets began in". Jinling, the imperial capital (now Nanjing), don't send messages before New Year's Eve. You should add a pair of Spring Festival couplets at the door, and the emperor will go out to watch it. "Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, not only traveled incognito, watched the laughter, but also personally presented the Spring Festival couplets to Bachelor Tao An and others. The emperor's advocacy made the Spring Festival couplets increasingly prosperous, and finally formed an enduring fashion. Couplets are called "couplets", commonly known as pairs. Concise and profound, neat and balanced, word for word, is a unique art form of Chinese language. It can be said that couplet art is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation. The types of couplets can be divided into Spring Festival couplets, wedding couplets, birthday couplets, elegiac couplets, filial couplets, decorative couplets, industry couplets, communication couplets and miscellaneous couplets (including humorous couplets).