Why is the Spring Festival the most traditional festival in China?

As the Spring Festival approaches, thousands of families write and paste Spring Festival couplets, which is a national custom that has been circulated for thousands of years, symbolizing good luck and expressing people's yearning for a better life. 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". At first, two statues "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" were carved out of mahogany and hung on doors to ward off evil spirits. In 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. Fu Tao changed its name to "Spring Festival couplets", and writing Spring Festival couplets in red paper began in the Ming Dynasty. Because Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, liked Spring Festival couplets very much, Zhu Yuanzhang strongly advocated that it became a custom to paste Spring Festival couplets after the Spring Festival, which has been passed down to this day.

Brief introduction of Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets are also called "appropriate", "spring stickers", "couplets" and "couplets". They use neat, dual, concise and delicate words to describe the background of the times and express good wishes, which is a unique literary form in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in urban or rural areas, every household should choose a pair of red Spring Festival couplets and stick them on the door to add festive atmosphere to the festival.

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 writes by himself, but also often encourages his officials to write. One year on New Year's Eve, he sent a message: "A pair of Spring Festival couplets must be added to the door of public officials or scholars." On New Year's Day, I was very happy to see the Spring Festival couplets that complement each other. He went to a house and saw that there were no Spring Festival couplets on the door, so he asked why. It turns out that the owner kills pigs, and he is worried that no one can write Spring Festival couplets. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately wrote down the Spring Festival couplets of "splitting the road of life and death with both hands and cutting off the root of right and wrong with one knife" and gave them to this family. From this story, we can see that Zhu Yuanzhang vigorously advocated Spring Festival couplets, and it was precisely because of his vigorous advocacy that it promoted the popularization of Spring Festival couplets.

By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of Spring Festival couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's monograph Poetry of Spring Festival 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, 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 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 Liang Lu's Dream, "When I was young, I would visit department stores, draw door gods and spend the Spring Festival ..."; "Scholars, big or small, must sweep the floor, clean the family, change the door gods, hang Zhong Xu, nail peaches, stick spring cards and worship their ancestors." The "spring card" in this article is the word "fu" written on red paper.

The word "fu" is now interpreted as "happiness", but in the past it meant "good luck" and "good luck". No matter now or in the past, the word "Fu" posted in the Spring Festival has pinned people's yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future. In order to fully reflect this yearning and wish, the people simply turn the word "blessing" upside down, indicating that "blessing has fallen" and "blessing has arrived"

There is also a legend that the word "fu" is posted upside down among the people. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, took the word "fu" as a secret memory and prepared to kill people. In order to eliminate this disaster, kind Ma Huanghou asked all the families in the city to put "Fu" on their doors before dawn.

Naturally, no one dares to go against Ma Huanghou's will, so the word "Fu" is posted on every door. If one of the families can't read, turn the word "fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to the streets to check and found that every family had posted the word "Fu", and another family had posted the word "Fu" upside down. When the emperor heard the news, he was furious and immediately ordered the body guard to cut down the house. Seeing that something was wrong, Ma Huanghou quickly said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "My family knew that you were visiting today and deliberately put the word' Fu' upside down. Isn't this the meaning of "blessed road"? " When the emperor heard the truth, he ordered his release, and a great disaster was finally eliminated. Since then, people have turned the word "Fu" upside down for good luck and in memory of Ma Huanghou.

Others elaborate the word "Fu" into various patterns, such as longevity, longevity peach, carp yue longmen, abundant grains, dragons and phoenixes, and so on. In the past, there was a folk saying that "on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every family wrote big characters". The word "fu" used to be handwritten, but now it is sold in markets and shops.

Literary interpretation

Spring Festival couplets belong to a kind of couplets. Couplets are divided into Spring Festival couplets, birthday couplets, elegiac couplets, door couplets, hall couplets, temple couplets, scenery couplets, business couplets, game couplets, etc. Spring Festival couplets are just one of them. The so-called couplets are those hung or pasted on the colonnade or doorframe in front of the main hall, so they are also called couplets. This kind of couplet is two equal strings of words, which stand opposite each other and have a certain connotation. That is to say, there is no limit to the number of words in couplets, but they must be equal, meaningful in content, regular in level and level, and neat in antithesis. Those who meet these conditions are couplets, otherwise they are not couplets.

Couplets are a unique literary form with a long history in China. Originally originated from the word peach. Taofu is two red wooden boards hung on doorframes in ancient China, with figures or handwriting painted or engraved on them to ward off evil spirits. Fu Tao appeared before the Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, every New Year, there was a custom of hanging or carving "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" Fu Tao around the gate.

So why can mahogany avoid evil and exorcise evil spirits? According to China's ancient myth "Shan Hai Jing", there was a mountain in ancient times that was a ghost world, called the ghost domain. At the gate of this ghost town, there is a big peach tree whose crown can cover the sky for three thousand miles. There is a golden rooster living in the tree, which is responsible for the dawn every day. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night must return to the ghost domain. On both sides of the gate of the ghost domain stood two gods. Their names were Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If ghosts do unnatural things at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately catch them, tie them up with ropes and send them to the tiger, so all ghosts are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. In this way, Shen Tu, Lei Yu and Taomu were used to exorcise evil spirits and avoid disasters. They carved the shapes of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on mahogany, or carved their names on mahogany boards and hung them at the door to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. This kind of red board is called "peach symbol".

How did the Spring Festival couplets come into being?

It is said that Meng Changjun, the monarch of Shu after the Five Dynasties, was a monarch who liked to be unconventional. On New Year's Eve at the end of 964, he had a whim to let a bachelor named Xin write two sentences on the mahogany board and hang them on the door frame of his living room as peach symbols. These two sentences are "Qing Yu in the New Year, Changchun in the First Festival". Enjoy the legacy of the previous generation in the new year. The next sentence is to the effect that festivals indicate that spring will always be there. Since then, the form and content of Fu Tao have changed, not only by replacing "Shen Tu" and "Lei Yu" with parallel couplets, but also by expanding the connotation of Fu Tao, not only to ward off evil spirits and disasters, but also by adding the content of praying and wishing. This became the earliest Spring Festival couplets 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 every year. 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 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 that the family did not post Spring Festival couplets. He asked why. The attendant replied: this is a master who is engaged in killing pigs and cutting pigs. He is very busy during the New Year, and he hasn't had time to find 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.

With the passage of time, Spring Festival couplets have become a broad concept, and many sub-categories have appeared. According to the place of use, it can be divided into several types, such as frame pair, anti-string, spring strip and bucket square. The "frame pair" is attached to the left and right doorframes, which is our common Spring Festival couplets; "Anti-string" is posted on the crossbar of the door, which is the anti-string of Spring Festival couplets; According to different contents, "Spring Articles" are simple articles posted in corresponding places, such as "Looking up to see happiness", "Going in and out safely" and "Congratulations on getting rich" posted in the hospital during the New Year; "Dou Jin", also known as "door leaf", is a square diamond, often attached to furniture, single doors or screen walls. The word "fu" that everyone likes to post upside down during the Spring Festival belongs to this kind of "fighting for money".

China people's Spring Festival couplets complex

If the history of posting Spring Festival couplets in China has been two thousand years since the Qin and Han Dynasties, why do people in China always have a soft spot for posting Spring Festival couplets? This involves the traditional thinking concept of China people. As the saying goes, "A year's plan lies in spring." Our people have an optimistic thinking concept since ancient times, that is, they hope for the future and pray that the future will bring them good luck. No matter whether you are happy, proud or unhappy in the past year, you always hope that the next year will be better, so when the Spring Festival comes, posting Spring Festival couplets is just the best choice to achieve this goal. With the help of Spring Festival couplets, express joy and happiness for the coming year, or express expectations and high hopes for the new year. In their traditional concept, a good start in a year is the most pleasant and auspicious thing. Therefore, every Spring Festival, they express their good feelings and good expectations for the future by posting Spring Festival couplets. At the same time, China people attach great importance to festive, auspicious and lively activities, such as eating well, drinking well, wearing new clothes, setting off firecrackers, visiting relatives and friends, etc. These are all reflections of festive psychology, and posting Spring Festival couplets is only an external means to strengthen people's festive psychology and render the atmosphere.