"The sky is long and the sunset is far away, and the meaning is heavy and Mount Tai is light", this seemingly simple, but in fact interesting style is a unique treasure of Chinese traditional culture, couplet.
The history of couplets can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period. In feudal society, class divisions were so severe that couplets were originally just a play on words between literati.
When the couplet, the upper and lower couplets require the battle to be neat, rhyme evenly, and have similar or opposite meanings, which will be fragrant to read.
After the changes of the times, the couplet culture gradually sank. Not only literati and artists, but also ordinary people can also use couplets as a spice and embellishment in life. Compared with the early days, the couplets at this time are less demanding and more interesting.
Nowadays, we can see the shadow of couplets everywhere in our lives.
At the gate of the national scenic spot, there will basically be couplets. Every Spring Festival, every household will also paste Spring Festival couplets in front of the door.
The Chinese have integrated folk culture into the couplet, and skillfully combined Yangchun Baixue and Xiariba people. In the couplet culture of the ** period, what interesting things happened?
In today's article, let's take a look at the couplet story in Tsinghua Garden.
In 1932, Tsinghua was preparing for an admissions exam. And Liu Wendian, who is in charge of the category of the Chinese culture exam, is hurrying to the office of Chen Yinke, a master of Chinese culture.
Originally, the teacher in charge of the Chinese culture exam was Zhu Ziqing, but due to a sudden personal matter, he couldn't spare time to deal with this work. So in a hurry, Liu Wendian had no choice but to ask Chen Yinke for help.
Who is Chen Yinke?
He is known as one of the "Masters of the Four Great Powers", and he has both the elegance of Eastern culture and the openness of Western culture. It can be said that Chen Yinke was born for cultural dissemination and inheritance.
He was born in a family of Chinese studies, and his father was a scholar in the traditional sense, and he had a lot of research on Chinese studies and history. Driven by his father, Chen Yinke was influenced by a strong family cultural atmosphere, and gradually developed a deep interest in Chinese studies.
Chinese culture, which has been inherited for 5,000 years, is itself a great miracle in the history of world culture. The long-standing and profound Chinese culture is like a treasure chest, attracting the young Chen Yinke to immerse himself in it.
God is full of not only interest, but also talent. Even his knowledgeable father sighed more than once that this child may have come to the world to inherit Chinese culture.
At the age of eight, Chen Yinke was able to discuss history with his father. In addition to the official history, he is often able to put forward his own unique views on historical and cultural phenomena. For this, his father was ashamed of himself.
It is precisely because he perceives his son's advantages that his father devotes the whole family effort to cultivate his son's success. Chen Yinke can receive the best education, and he also has the confidence to take the initiative to broaden his horizons.
In 1902, he traveled east to Japan, to a strange country, to learn from the new environment and grow up. The reason why he chose Japan is because Chen believes that Chinese culture and Japanese culture are inextricably linked.
It is well known that most of Japan's cultural customs were learned from China by their envoys.
Learning hiragana and katakana can help Chen Yinke enrich the research system of Chinese characters; Exposure to Japanese kimonos can make Chen Yinke have more ideas about Chinese clothing culture; From Japanese Japanese architecture, Chen Yinke can also see the influence of ancient Chinese architectural styles on the world ......
Of course, in addition to Chinese culture, Chen Yinke also set his sights on Japan's political economy.
Most of their political models are of Western origin, which is very different from China's political style and political structure. Chen Yinke's vision of these can be regarded as an eye-opener.
He wrote home and told his father: "It is said in ancient books that it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read ten thousand books. This time, I finally had a direct and profound experience. ”
After staying in Japan for a few years, Chen Yinke returned to China with a full harvest and came to Fudan University to continue his studies.
The changes in the environment gave him more inspiration and gave him more profound thoughts. Chen Yinke's own ideological and cultural system is gradually taking shape, but he realizes that what he has been exposed to at the moment is far from enough.
So his heart is "ambitious", and he still wants to go further and go to a bigger world.
With this purpose in mind, Chen Yinke embarked on his study tour of Europe.
The open Western culture and the implicit Eastern culture are like two seeds, constantly sprouting and growing in his mind. When he came to the West, he felt everything that he had never experienced before.
However, what is commendable is that even after seeing the many preciousness of Western culture, the core cultural system that Chen Yinke himself adheres to still comes from the East.
He insisted on being the main person and using it for me, and brought some Western thinking into the study of Eastern culture.
This matter is very beneficial, and Chen Yinke's own knowledge is constantly enriching and precipitating. After returning to China, in Tsinghua Garden, Chen Yinke showed his skills, and gained countless admirers behind him.
It is said that Master Chen Yinke's public class is hard to find.
Students know that this teacher's lessons are rich and lively, unlike traditional Chinese culture lecturers who only copy the previous education model. In his courses, everyone's thinking can be enlightened differently.
It is precisely because Chen Yinke has such a heavy weight in the hearts of his classmates that he has become the best choice to save the scene in Liu Wendian's mind.
After Chen Yinke, who was sitting in the office, learned of Liu Wendian's intention, he immediately agreed to take over the errand.
However, he said: "I may be more demanding, and the question may be more tricky, so I have to talk about it first." ”
"It's easy to say, as long as you're willing to say yes. ”
At this time, Liu Wendian, who wiped his sweat, never expected that Chen Yinke's topic would be so different.
After taking over the task, Chen Yinke retreated for a day and gave his topic.
In this exam, Chen Yinke asked a total of two questions. One of them is a regular essay question, and he asked for a proposition essay this time, and the title was uniformly formulated as "Sleepwalking in Tsinghua Garden".
The other question is ingenious and interesting. This is a couplet question, and the upper link given by the professor is "Sun Xingzhi", and the students are asked to give a neat lower couplet.
Couplets are an important part of the culture of Chinese culture, and these students who intend to apply for Tsinghua University naturally see a lot of them. But as we all know, the more words the better, and the fewer the words, the more difficult it is to grasp.
Although the three words "Sun Xingzhi" seem simple, they actually contain a lot of ingenious thoughts.
On the whole, Sun Xingzhi is a character in "Journey to the West", Sun Wukong. He is also a well-known image of a famous book, and the children on the streets and alleys still love to role-play Sun Xingzhi.
But if you take these three words apart, they will have different meanings.
"Sun" can refer to both the surname Sun among the hundred family surnames, and the grandson of the grandson. In other words, this word is considered to have multiple meanings, and it depends on how the respondent understands it.
And "walk" has the meaning of going and going.
As for the word "者", it can be used to describe an image, and it can also be regarded as a fictional word in classical Chinese, which has no practical meaning.
Therefore, this seemingly simple couplet can actually produce a kaleidoscopic thinking in the process of interpretation. Therefore, there is such a consensus that the fewer words the couplet, the more difficult it is to match.
Let's look back at the examination room, the candidates got the test papers, and after seeing such a question, most of them were confused.
Generally, before the exam, candidates will bet on the question, but everyone didn't expect that there would be a couplet question in this exam, and it was such a difficult couplet.
Some candidates who are not confident give up answering such a question directly after seeing it. However, there are also candidates who insist on answering, but their thinking limitations are too serious.
They simply regarded Sun Xingzhi as a whole, and regarded him as a character in "Journey to the West".
So they wrote down a variety of answers, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, Rulai Buddha, Guanyin ......There are no exceptions, all of them are images from "Journey to the West".
Of course, there are also people who diverge their thinking a little and take out people from other literary masterpieces as answers.
For example, the flower monk and timely rain in "Water Margin", and the Zhuzhu fairy and Tongling jade in "Dream of Red Mansions".
In short, none of these answers are what Chen Yinke wants to see.
When he was reading the papers, he couldn't help but lose his temper.
He said to Liu Wendian: "Today's young people, the accumulation of Chinese culture is too shallow, and they dare to apply for our Chinese culture class, which is beyond their means." As Chinese, knowing and understanding our own culture should be the most basic requirement, how can this be the situation now! ”
Chen Yinke, who was elegant, was really angry this time.
He always believes that Chinese should not forget their roots.
We enjoy such a rich cultural treasure trove, and we have cultural advantages that are completely incomparable to other countries, and we should seize these resources and promote our own culture.
But it is clear that through these papers, he is gradually losing hope that the next generation of students will spread Chinese culture.
But at this moment, the appearance of an exam paper was like a spring breeze and rain, which extinguished the anger in Chen Yinke's heart.
The person who answered this exam paper is named Zhou Zumo, who was born in 1914.
Coincidentally, like Chen Yinke, he has shown an interest in Chinese studies since he was a child, and he is also particularly talented in this subject. Moreover, his family atmosphere is also very good.
On the answer sheet, the answer he wrote down was "Hu Shizhi".
Although this answer was not what Chen Yinke had in mind, he thought it was better than his own answer.
Let's analyze it specifically, what is the magic of "Hu Shizhi".
First of all, Hu Shizhi, like Sun Xingzhi, is a person, or an image. Moreover, the national popularity of these two people is not low.
Let's talk about the word-by-word confrontation problem, Zhou Zumo also completely fulfilled the neat requirements.
"Hu" vs. "Sun", both of which are very common surnames among the surnames of the Chinese people, and they are not ranked low in the "Hundred Family Names". So this first word has already made Chen Yinke's eyes shine.
And "suitable" to "line" is also very suitable. In ancient Chinese, these two characters are both verbs, and both have the meaning of going and going, which fulfills the requirement of similar meanings in the couplet.
The last "of" to the "one" is even more ingenious. When we study classical Chinese, we usually compare it with "Zhihu Ye".
They are all mood particles, i.e., imaginary words, that have no real meaning. And placing it on the last word of the couplet just happens to make the couplet more pleasant to read.
So on the whole, this answer made Chen Yinke extremely satisfied.
He was not stingy and gave his only perfect score. Moreover, he also changed his previous attitude and took this exam paper under Liu Wendian's nose.
"Come and see, this is the answer I want, this Zhou Zumo is the talent I want. On that basis, I have to make a request to admit him to me. ”
Seeing such a talented person, Chen Yinke was extremely excited.
In fact, although the next link he came up with by himself is not "Hu Shizhi", it is also very standard.
"Zu Chongzhi" and "Wang Yinzhi" are all very good answers in his heart, but he always feels that they are not as good as Zhou Zumo's answers.
If you compare Chen Yinke's two answers, then "Zu Chongzhi" is actually more in line with the requirements of Shanglian.
"Zu" vs. "Sun", both can be used as surnames, and the two happen to have opposite meanings. The meaning of grandparents and grandchildren will make the first word more interesting.
In addition, "rushing" and "walking", in fact, strictly speaking, also have opposite meanings. The action represented by "rushing" is very fast, while "xing" generally refers to walking slowly in ancient texts, and the two are just the opposite, which fully meets the requirements of the couplet.
Needless to say, the reason for the neatness of the battle is the same as above.
We can see that the couplet culture is open-ended.
There is not only one standard answer for an uplink, and different people can use their brains to make different downlinks. Carefully analyzing each couplet, we can read different pleasures from it.
This is the charm of couplets, and this is why Chen Yinke must add a couplet question to the exam questions.
However, it is a pity that out of consideration for tuition fees, Chen Yinke's favorite candidate Zhou Zumo did not choose Tsinghua University in the end, but went to Peking University for further study.
Chen Yinke did not recruit this student who was extremely satisfactory to him, but he was not discouraged. In terms of the overall situation, he learned about Zhou Zumo's talents, and there were more opportunities to communicate with him in the future.
Couplet culture is all-encompassing, which can not only describe high-level cultural phenomena, but also be incomparably close to the real life of the general public. Everyone can taste their own joys, sorrows and sorrows from the couplet.
Looking at traditional Chinese culture from the perspective of couplet culture, we can fully perceive the charm of our own culture. To promote the great rejuvenation of excellent traditional culture, it is imperative for the sons and daughters of China to do so.