The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and every household has to paste Spring Festival couplets at the door to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, so do you know how the Spring Festival couplets evolved? What is the significance of the Spring Festival couplets in the New Year?
In ancient times a long time ago, the Spring Festival couplets were not ** couplets at the earliest, but called peach charms, and the peach charms were made of peach wood for the Spring Festival Gala, about three inches wide and six inches long. What is written on the peach talisman is not a couplet, but two door gods.
These two door gods were not Qin Shubao and Wei Chigong that we are more familiar with at the beginning, but a pair of brothers, named Shen Tu and Yu Lei respectively.
According to the ancient fantasy document "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", there is a Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea, and there is a huge peach tree on the mountain, whose branches and roots go straight to the Ghost Gate Pass in the northeast, which is the necessary place for all ghosts to enter the Ghost Gate Pass.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Overseas Classics": "There are mountains in the East China Sea, and the name is Dushuo. There is a big peach tree on it, and it is three thousand miles long. There is a gate in the northeast, which is called the ghost gate, and all ghosts gather.
The two of them checked the fools who came back from going out every day, and if there were many evildoers, they would be tied up with straw ropes and thrown to the tigers to eat.
This myth has brought a deep-rooted notion to the folk:
First, peach wood can suppress ghosts.
Regarding the role of peach wood in suppressing ghosts and driving away evil spirits, it is mentioned in the "Zuo Chuan" and "Zhuangzi" of the pre-Qin Dynasty.
Zhuangzi": "Insert peach branches in the household, and even ashes under it." The boy is not afraid, but the ghost is afraid. ”
The "Zuo Chuan: The Fourth Year of Zhao Gong" also records that when the nobles took the ice, they used bows made of peach wood to ward off evil spirits and disasters.
Second, Shen Tu and Yu Lei can catch ghosts.
However, at first, people did not combine the two, but fell in love with the evil spirit of peach, and the hanging on the door was only a villain made of peachwood, not Shen Tu and Yu Lei.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, this custom was still maintained, and Ying Shao recorded in the "Customs and Customs" that "the Chinese New Year's Eve is decorated with peaches......I hope to defend the murderer".
In other words, during this period, the main thing used to suppress ghosts and drive away evil spirits was peach wood.
But what we have to know is that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was another major historical event - Taoism was born.
Taoism integrated these myths and legends into the Taoist system, and each god had his own official position and status, and the two brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei, who were originally princes of one side in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", also became office workers affiliated with the underworld.
The Taoist immortal system was really established in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, founded by Ge Hong.
Ge Hong in "The Legend of the True Immortals on the Yuan Shishang": The Eastern Ghost Emperor ruled Taozhi Mountain, the Southern Ghost Emperor ruled Luofu Mountain, the Western Ghost Emperor ruled the Banner Tomb Mountain, and the **Ghost Emperor ruled the Calf Mountain; And the ghost emperor in the north is Zhang Heng Yang Yun, who governs Luo Yu Mountain.
The Eastern Ghost Emperor here refers to the gods and Yu Lei.
The Eastern Jin Dynasty and the later Northern and Southern Dynasties were the great stages of Taoist development, and with the development of the immortal system in the people, the gods and Yu Lei and peach wood were combined.
At the beginning of each year, the folk make a wooden board with peach wood, draw the portrait of the two people on the top, and write the names of the two people, the left is called Shendi, and the right is called Yulei.
The door god was born.
This is the origin of the predecessor of the Spring Festival couplets - the peach charm.
The peach charm into spring couplets came from the five dynasties and ten kingdoms after the Tang Dynasty.
However, out of rigor, Lao Zhang, I still want to tell you one more thing, before the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Spring Festival couplets have appeared, but the Spring Festival couplets at this time can actually only be said to be made in the Spring Festival, not the kind of Spring Festival couplets hanging on the door.
So far, the earliest Spring Festival couplets in the world are from the twelve costumes in the Dunhuang testament unearthed from the Mogao Caves, among which the Spring Festival couplets ranked first are "the beginning of the three yangs, and the beginning of the four prefaces." The author Liu Qiuzi of the Tang Dynasty was written in the eleventh year of Kaiyuan (723).
On Chinese New Year's Eve in 964 BC 240 years later, Meng Chang, the last emperor of Later Shu, summoned his ministers to have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, during which Meng Chang ordered the minister Xin Yinxun to write two couplets for himself and hang them on the door of the dormitory.
Xin Yinxun wrote a few paintings, but Meng Chang couldn't look at them, so he wrote a pair himself, saying "New Year's celebration, Jiajie Changchun." ”
We cannot tell whether the writing of the couplet on the peach symbol was the emperor's initiative, but we can only say that this is the first recorded record of the couplet being written on the peach symbol.
In the second year, Houshu was destroyed by Zhao Kuangyin of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the time was the 16th day of the second lunar month, which happened to be Zhao Kuangyin's birthday.
What's more coincidental is that after Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne in 960, he deliberately set his birthday as a national holiday and named it "Changchun Festival". The first and last Spring Festival couplet in Meng Chang's life, "Jiajie Changchun", just fits the "Long Spring Festival" of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Whether it was a coincidence or deliberate, we don't know, but Zhao Kuangyin was overjoyed, so he followed Meng Chang's operation, and wrote the couplet on the peach charm at the beginning of each year and hung it on the door.
Some people may ask, the couplet is written on the peach talisman, and the gods and Yu Lei ** went?
Isn't there a door god here? Shen Tu and Yu Lei moved to the middle of the two couplets and hung them on the door. Attentive friends can take a look at the small characters on the portrait of the door god posted on the door door in the countryside, in addition to Wei Chigong and Qin Shubao, there are also gods and Yu Lei.
The Spring Festival couplets we see today were basically formed in the Song Dynasty. However, there is one thing to say, the Spring Festival couplets at that time were still called peach symbols, such as Wang Anshi's poem "Thousands of households always replace the new peach with the old one", and the peach charm here is our current Spring Festival couplet.
However, the origin of the name "Spring Festival couplet" was first proposed by Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.
In the south of 1368 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a beggar, ascended the throne of the Ming Emperor, and we all know that Lao Zhu was very poor when he was a child, and three people starved to death in his family, so the New Year was tantamount to a catastrophe for him.
As the saying goes, what was lacking before, what is liked now.
According to the record of "Hairpin Cloud Building Miscellaneous", at the beginning of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly issued an edict: "The princess's family must add a pair of Spring Festival couplets to the door." ”
The picture is a festive one.
In order to check everyone's execution, Lao Zhu also deliberately inspected the micro-service on the second day.
On the way to inspect, Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the door of a house was blank, and ordered someone to interrogate, only to learn that the head of the household surnamed Miao was a gelding, because he couldn't read and write, and because he was in a hurry to work, he didn't have time to ask Mr. to write.
Lao Zhu also expressed his understanding, so he personally operated and wrote him a very appropriate Spring Festival couplet: "Split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut the root of right and wrong with one knife." ”。
This couplet is based on the theme of castration, which is very vivid, humorous, and imposing, and also uses the title to express Zhu Yuanzhang's pride and comfort in building the emperor.
The next day, Lao Zhu returned to the palace and passed by here, and found that the Miao surname was still not posted, so he ordered someone to go over to interrogate, and the next person came to report: Your Majesty's royal pen, dare not post it, it has been hung in the middle hall, and it will be enshrined in the morning and evening.
Zhu Yuanzhang turned his anger into joy, so he gave thirty taels of silver to fund his children and grandchildren to study.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's wave of compulsory promotion, the peach charm was named Spring Festival couplets, and was promoted from the court scholars to the people, and during the Qing Dynasty, the Spring Festival couplets culture gradually reached its peak.
Regarding the origin of the Spring Festival couplets, if you have anything to add, you can communicate in the comment area.