What is a couplet

Couplets, also known as couplets or pairs, are pairs of statements written on paper, cloth or carved on bamboo, wood, pillars, simple and meaningful, neat, level and oblique coordination, is a unique art form of the Chinese language of the word a sound. Couplets are rumored to have begun in the Five Dynasties after the Lord of Shu, Meng Chang. It is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation. Couplets are rumored to have begun in the Five Dynasties after the Lord of Shu, Meng Chang. It is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation. The couplets hung during the Spring Festival are called spring couplets.　Couplets, also known as couplets, couplets, door pairs, spring stickers, spring couplets, pairs, peach symbols, etc., are a kind of couplet literature, originated from peach symbols. Couplets are a national literary style written using the characteristics of Chinese characters. Generally, they do not need to rhyme (only the couplets in the poems need to rhyme). Couplets can be roughly divided into poetic couplets, as well as prose couplets, which are strictly, divided into small and large word categories relative to each other. Traditional couplets have a common form, connected content, harmonized tone, and rigorous counterpoint.　With the rise of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, prose couplets were excluded. Prose couplets generally do not stick to the level and narrowness, do not avoid heavy words, do not overemphasize the word equivalent, but without losing the battle.　Couplets have a long history and are said to have begun with Meng Chang, the lord of Shu in the Five Dynasties. His inscription on the board of peach symbols on the door of his bedchamber: "New Year's Day, Jiajie No. Eternal Spring" is called "Peach Symbol" (see "Shu Legend"). This is the earliest couplet in China, and also the first spring couplet.　The next couplet is a pair of different objects, which either harmonizes with or refutes the meaning of the couplet. Meaning and deep couplets, prose couplets can not be said not to.　Characteristics: First, the number of words in the upper and lower couplets are equal, the same structure. In addition to the intention to empty the position of a word to achieve a certain effect, the number of words in the couplet must be the same.　　Second, the corresponding position of the same word. Verbs to verbs, adjectives to adjectives, quantifiers to quantifiers, adverbs to adverbs, and relative words must be in relative positions.　Thirdly, the level and tone should be in harmony. According to the rhyme to points, the upper rhyming should be oblique, the lower rhyming should be flat, so-called "oblique flat.　Fourth, the rhythm of the corresponding, that is, the top and bottom of the pause must be the same place.

Origin

History

Couplets, the literature of the war also. This kind of parallel symmetry of language and text is very similar to the so-called "Taiji gives birth to two yi" in philosophy, that is to say, dividing everything in the world into two halves of yin and yang which are symmetrical to each other. Therefore, we can say that the philosophical origin of Chinese couplets and the deep-rooted national cultural psychology is the concept of yin-yang duality. The dualism of yin and yang is the foundation of ancient Chinese worldview. To grasp things with the concept of yin-yang duality is the thinking method of ancient Chinese. This yin and yang dualistic concept of thought has a very far-reaching origin, "I Ching" Spring Festival customs

The trigram symbols, that is, by the yin and yang two lines, "Yi Chuan" said: "a yin and a yang is said to be the road." Laozi also said: "Everything negative Yin and hold the Yang, the impulse to and." (Lao Tzu, chapter 42.) Xunzi, on the other hand, argues, "Heaven and earth unite to bring forth all things, and yin and yang unite to bring forth change." (Xunzi - Rites of Passage) The Huang Lao Pali Shu, on the other hand, states, "The way of heaven and earth has a left and a right, a yin and a yang." This concept of yin and yang is not only an abstract concept, but also widely infiltrated into the ancient Chinese people on the natural world and human society in the understanding and interpretation of everything. Zhou Yi - Preface to Gua Chuan "There is heaven and earth and then there are all things, there are all things and then there are men and women, there are men and women and then there are couples, there are couples and then there are fathers and sons, there are fathers and sons and then there are rulers and ministers, there are rulers and ministers and then there are up and down, there are up and down and then there are rituals and there is a measure of it." The Yi Chuan, respectively, to a variety of specific things to symbolize the yin and yang two lines. Yin represents kun, earth, female, woman, son, minister, abdomen, down, north, wind, water, zephyr, flower, black and white, supple, etc.; in contrast, yang represents qian, heaven, male, father, ruler, head, up, south, thunder, fire, mountain, fruit, red and yellow, rigid, etc. This omnipresent concept of yin and yang, deep into the subconscious of the Han people, thus becoming a national collective unconscious. And the concept of yin and yang in the national psychology, one of the important features, is the "two", "right" form of things appearing in the characteristics of the obsession and fascination.

Language

A standard couplet is characterized by its most essential feature, "pairing". When it is expressed verbally, it is a verbal counterpoint, and when it is written, it is a textual counterpoint. What is the meaning of verbal counterpoint? Usually we mention the four requirements of equal number of words, relative word nature, equal and oblique, and the same syntax, and the most crucial of the four is equal number of words and equal and oblique, and the equal number of words here is different from the equal number of words in English, which is essentially the equal number of syllables. Here, the number of words is different from the number of words in English. That is, one syllable corresponds to one syllable. In English, the words "cart" and "jeep" are equal in number, but not in syllables. The Chinese words "kǎchē" and "jīpǔ" are equal in number and syllables. The reason why Chinese can realize the equality of syllables is that Chinese is a language with monosyllables as its basic unit. Syllables, morphemes and characters are three in one. Each syllable in Chinese is independent, has a definite length and tone, and the tone has four tones in ancient times, namely, Ping, Shang, Go, and In, and in modern times, there are four tones, namely, Yangping, Yinping, Shangsheng, and Daosheng, which are divided into two major categories: Ping and Oblique. Ping to oblique is called the phase of the argument. In this way, the Chinese language can establish the relationship between morphemes and morphemes (i.e., between characters) with equal number of characters and harmonious ping and oblique. In English, even though the names and concepts of things can be relative, the number and lexical nature of words can be relative, and the syntax of two sentences can be relative, the syllables are of different lengths, weakly independent, freely spelled, and have no tones, so they cannot be relative. Most of the couplets are written as words, and very often they have to be written, hung or engraved on other buildings or artifacts. Therefore, the second level of couplets is the so-called relative text. The word relative means that couplets are not only language art, but also decorative art. As a decorative art, a pair of couplets requires neatness and symmetry, giving people a harmonious and symmetrical beauty. Chinese characters have the right conditions to realize neatness and symmetry; they exist in the form of individual squares, square and neat, each occupying an equal spatial position in writing. It is readable and visual. Its square shape has both the principle of aesthetics and the requirement of mechanics. Whether it is written horizontally or vertically, it can appear sparse and dense, neat and beautiful. On the other hand, English is a pinyin script, each word is of different lengths, only expresses the sound, not the meaning, not to mention the visibility, can only be arranged horizontally, can not be arranged vertically, and can not realize the real symmetry from the form. The following is a comparison of two Chinese and English pairs of sentences with the same meaning, to further illustrate why only Chinese has true symmetry, while English and other pinyin scripts do not.

Other sayings

Couplets originated in the Qin Dynasty and were known as peach symbols in ancient times. Regarding the earliest couplets in China, Mr. Tan Cicang Xue, writing in the fourth issue of Knowledge of Literature and History in 1991, pointed out that the earliest couplets in China appeared in the Tang Dynasty. She to the Mogao Cave Cangjing Cave unearthed the volume number for the Stein 0610 Dunhuang books as a basis: Years of the day: the three suns began to cloth, the four sequences of the first opening.　Fortune and celebration are new, and longevity and prosperity are prolonged.　And also: the three suns return to the beginning, the four sequences come to the auspicious.　The new day, the celebration of life is boundless.　On the first day of spring: the copper mascot first celebrates the mat, and the jade law first adjusts the sun.　Five blessings in addition to the three evils, the ancient □ (coffin) a hundred disasters.　Baoji is able to avoid evil, and Ruiyan is able to present good fortune.　Spring is on the door, rich and prosperous children and grandchildren.　Also: The three suns are beginning to spread, and the four mengs are beginning to open.　The old is gone and the new is coming.　The year is full of festivities and the month is free of disasters.　Chicken and water are good for wealth.　The god of the door protects and hides the evil spirits.　Door books are around, and I am in good health!　Zhao Deixin, the author of the Tonal Compendium of Voices, clearly states, "Two lines as a couplet and four lines as a jie (句) began in the Six Dynasties, and Yuan (元) was not a recent style." Wang Fuzhi said, the couplet originated from the rhythmic poetry, like "amputation of the head and feet, disabled physiology" ------ "Qing Poetry" The couplet originated from the symmetry of the Chinese characters and phonetics, and appeared before the Zhou Dynasty, the development of papermaking and calligraphy, so that the couplet has become an independent style of writing.

Edited Development

But from the point of view of literary history, couplets gradually evolved and developed from the couplets in ancient poems and dictionaries. This development process has gone through about three stages:

Pairing stage

The time span is pre-Qin, two Han Dynasty to the North and South Dynasties. In China's ancient poetry, some relatively neat couplets appeared very early. Several ancient ballads that have been handed down to this day have already seen their abuse. For example, "Drink from the well, eat from the field", "Work at sunrise, rest at sunset" and so on. To the pre-Qin and Han, couplets are more common. "I Ching" hexagrams and lines in the rhetoric has been some of the couplets neatly text, such as: "small can see, lame can fulfill." ("Cui" hexagram "six three"), "first ascended in the sky, after entering the earth." ("Mingyi" hexagram "upper six") "Yi Chuan" in the pair of neat sentences are more common, such as: "up to observe in astronomy, down to observe in geography." ("The Next Biography of the Department of Rhetoric"), "The same sound corresponds to the same qi, the water flows wet, the fire is dry, the clouds follow the dragon, and the wind follows the tiger ...... then each follows its own class." (Qian - Wen Yan Biography) The Poetry Scriptures, written during the Spring and Autumn Period, were already rich in couplets. Liu Linsheng said in the History of Chinese Eroticism: "There is nothing in the Book of Songs that does not fulfill the ancient and modern method of composing pairs". He cited the examples of various pairs such as proper name pairs, similar pairs, serial pairs, double-sound pairs, overlapping rhymes, double rhymes, and so on. For example, "Green dickey, long my heart." ("Zheng Feng - Dicky"), "There are fusu in the mountains, and lotus flowers in the marsh." ("Zheng Feng - Mountains have Fusu") The Tao Te Ching also has many couplets. Liu Linsheng once said, "The method of cutting pairs in the Tao Te Ching has been varied in many ways: there are those who make pairs in a chain, there are those who make pairs in different ways, there are those who make pairs by dividing the words. There are those who make pairs by repeating their words. There are also those who make pairs by repeating their words and those who make pairs in any case." (The History of Chinese Ebonics, e.g., "The letter is not beautiful, the beautiful word is not believable. Those who are good do not argue, and those who argue are not good." (Chapter 81), "Independence without change, circumspection without danger." (Chapter 22) Look again at the couplets in the prose of the sons. For example, "Fullness invites loss, modesty benefits." (Shangshu - Wucheng), "Ride a fat horse, wear a light fur." (The Analects of Confucius - Yongya), "A gentleman is at peace with himself, but a villain is always at peace with himself." ("Analects of Confucius - Shu而") and so on. Rhetoric arose in the Han Dynasty, a new style of literature that emphasizes elegance and rhythm. Pairing, a rhetorical technique with the beauty of neatness, contrast and music, began to be commonly and consciously used in the creation of fu. For example, Sima Xiangru's "Zi Xu Fu" has the following words: "Strike the spirit drum, raise the beacon; the car presses the line, rides on the team."

Parallel Stage

Paraphrase originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty's fugue, flourished in Wei and Jin, and flourished in the North and South Dynasties. From its name, it can be seen that it is a style of writing that advocates the use of couplets and consists mostly of couplet sentences. The use of such couplets in succession is also known as parallelism or parallelism. Liu Innocence in "Wenxin Diao Long - Ming Poetry" evaluates the parallelism as "the evenness of a hundred words, and the oddity of a sentence." In the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Bo's "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion", for example, reads: "The time is September, and the preface belongs to the three autumns. The scribbling water is finished and the cold pool is clear, the smoke condenses and the purple of the twilight mountains. Just like a horse and horses on the road, visit the scenery in the Chonga. The first thing you need to do is to get a good look at the oldest and most important thing you need to do is to get a good look at the oldest. Layers of mountains, up out of the sky; flying pavilion flow Dan, down to no place. Crane Ting Teal Islet, poor island of the haunting; Gui Palace Orchid Palace, that is, the body of the situation of the mountains.　Phi embroidered door, overlooking the carved ridge, the mountain plains open its full view, Chuanze xu its horrifying vision. Luk Yan fluttering ground, the home of the bells and bells; barge and ship lost, the axis of the green sparrow and yellow dragon. The clouds are clearing up and the rain is clearing up, and the colors are brightening up the area. Falling sun and a semblance of flying together, the autumn water *** long sky a color. The fishing boat sings the evening, the sound is poor Peng Li's shore; geese formation cold, sound broken Hengyang's Pu.　All of them are organized in couplets, of which "the sunset sun and a lone rushing man fly together, the autumn water *** long sky a color" is the ancient couplets of famous sentences. This pair of sentences is the further development of the ancient poems and fugues in the pair of sentences, it has the following three characteristics: First, the pair is no longer purely as a rhetorical device, has become the main metrical requirements of the literary style. There are three characteristics of parallelism, i.e., four or six sentences, parallelism, and the use of canon, and this is one of them. The second is that the number of words in a pair has a certain regularity. Mainly "four or six" sentence form and its variations. Mainly: four-word couplets, six-word couplets, eight-word couplets, cross couplets, twelve-word couplets. Thirdly, the couplets have been quite skillful, but there are many heavy words in them ("之、而", etc.), and the vocal couplets are not fully matured.

Rhythmic Couplet Stage

Rhythmic Couplet, the couplet in metrical poetry. This form of poetry, also known as proximity poetry, was officially formed in the Tang Dynasty, but its origins begin in the Wei and Jin dynasties. During the Cao Wei Dynasty, Li Deng made ten volumes of Sound Classes, and Lu Jing made five volumes of Rhyme Collections, which distinguished between clear and turbid tones, as well as gong, shang, jiao, zheng, and yu tones. In addition, Sun Yan made Er Ya Yinyi, which used antiphonal notation, and he was the founder of antiphonal notation. Generally speaking, the five- or seven-line poems are eight lines in a chapter, and the middle two couplets, known as the jaw and neck couplets, have to be opposite each other in terms of style, level, and meaning. This is the standard couplet. Cite Du Fu, "Ascension" that can be seen: the wind and sky high apes whistling sad, islet clear sand white birds fly back.　The boundless fallen trees are under the Xiao Xiao, endless Yangtze River rolls to.　Miles of sadness in the fall often as a guest, a hundred years of sickness alone on the stage.　The hard and bitter hatred of the complicated sideburns, scribbling new stop turbid wine cup.　The jaw and neck lines of this poem, "The boundless fallen trees are under the Xiao Xiao Xiao, and the endless Yangtze River rolls on." "I have been a frequent guest for ten thousand miles in sorrowful autumn, and I have been alone on the stage for a hundred years in sickness" is extremely stable. It is far better than the parallelism of parallelism in ekphrasis. In addition to the five or seven lines of poetry, Tang poetry, there are three rhymes, six rhymes, and the rows of rhymes, the middle lines are also the battle.　There are also three characteristics: first, the battle as a stylistic requirement for the use of a metrical; second, the number of words from the parallelism of even to odd, and finally settled on five or seven words; third, the battle is precise and stable, the sound of the battle has matured.

One Character Couplet

Mo (对) Quan This is the most exquisite one-character couplet.　The upper part of the character 'ink' is 'black'; while the upper part of the character 'spring' is 'white'. Each belongs to one of the colors and has opposite meanings.　The lower part of the two characters are 'earth' and 'water' respectively, which belong to one of the five elements.　 Two Character Couplet

Spring Flowers (vs.) Autumn Moon Han Fu (vs.) Chu Rhetoric Book Mountain (vs.) Sea of Learning Jade (vs.) Danyao

Three Character Couplet

Moon under the Water (vs.) Flowers in the Mirror Sun (vs.) Zu Chongzhi Water Curtain Cave (vs.) Mountain of Flowers and Fruits Flying Birds are all (vs.) Bow Hiding

Four Character Couplet

The Mountains never grow old (vs.) Green Water flows long The Mountains have beautiful water and beautiful scenery (vs.) Jiejian Ren Ling) The mountains are beautiful, and the land is blessed with great beauty. The flowers blossom in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and a hundred schools of thought contend in the sky.　I can't be as happy as I want to be, but I want to be as happy as I want to be.　The rain of the bamboo and the wind of the pine and the rhythm of the qin (vs.) the smoke of the tea and the moon and the sound of books.　I'm not ashamed of what I've done, and I'm not ashamed of what I've done.

Seven Character Couplet

It is not only that the mountains and rocks do not have false colors, but also that the grasses and trees have a true fragrance.　I am happy to be near a cool house with my neighbors, and to be with my guests in the Zen of words.　The winds of autumn are blowing over the brocade water, and the colors of spring are intoxicating the peaches of immortality.　A thousand years of ink and brushwork amaze the world.

The Eight-Character Couplet

The spirit of the mountains and the water also amazes the soulmate.　The door has ancient pines, and the court is free of rocks (right).　　The bamboo and the silk are the same as the song of the day (right), and the landscape is the same as the sun, and the sun is the same as the text.

Editing Characteristics

Fu Xiaosong's "A Brief Discussion of the Characteristics of Chinese Couplets" summarizes the characteristics of the couplets as a unity of five opposites:

The unity of uniqueness and universality

The unity of uniqueness and universality

The unity of unity of unity of the couplets.