China Traditional Cultural Treasure: Couplets

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.

The custom of couplets originated from the dual phenomenon of ancient Chinese in China. As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, China had the custom of hanging peach symbols for the New Year. The so-called Fu Tao is to write the names of the legendary gods "shentu" and "Lei Yu" on two mahogany boards and hang them on the left and right doors to exorcise ghosts and eliminate evil spirits. This custom lasted for more than 1000 years.

During the Western Jin Dynasty (around 290 AD), the appearance of well-organized antithesis can be regarded as an important symbol of its formation. In the course of more than 1,700 years of historical circulation, traditional literary forms such as couplets, parallel prose and regular poems have influenced and borrowed from each other. After three important periods of development, namely Northern Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the forms became increasingly diverse and the cultural accumulation gradually enriched.

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