China has a long history and culture, after 5,000 years of vicissitudes, although some of the cultural loss, there are still many cultural treasures that have been passed down from generation to generation. Pick just one of them and you'll have more than enough research for a lifetime. For example, couplets.
Couplets, also known as pairs, are a unique literary and artistic form in the Chinese language and are known as the cultural treasures of the Chinese nation.
The couplet originated in the Five Dynasties period, and Meng Chang, the monarch of the Later Shu Kingdom, pioneered this custom during the New Year: he created his own "New Year's Celebration of Yuqing; Jiajie Changchun" was posted at the door, and China's first couplet was born.
Hang the couplet on the side of the door to express good wishes and hope for the future.
The development of couplets is inseparable from the vigorous promotion of successive emperors. In particular, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, after he ascended the throne, asked the whole country to post couplets to show joy. He also wrote the couplet himself, leaving behind "both hands split the road of life and death; cut off the root of right and wrong with a knife" and other good sentences.
There are many kinds of couplets, which are roughly divided into spring couplets, longevity couplets, festival couplets, marriage couplets, elegiac couplets and Mianlian couplets. They are used to celebrate Chinese New Year, birthdays, festivals, weddings, mourn the dead, and motivate people.
Today, the custom of sticking couplets is still widespread throughout China, and every Chinese New Year or important festival is hung with carefully selected or created couplets. Legend has it that one night, Emperor Tang Ming and Yang Yuhuan climbed the tower to admire the moon together, and Emperor Tang Ming immediately chanted a couplet:The two of them sat on the soil.
Although there are only five words in this couplet, it has a deep meaning, not only vividly reflecting the scene of the two people playing in front of them, but also the word "sitting", which happens to be a "soil" word and two "people" words, which is another pair of split words.
If you want to match the lower link, you must not only meet the situation, but also be the same as the upper link. Yang Guifei on the side was extremely alert and responded:
The sun is bright in January. Yang Guifei's lower couplet is also a pair of split word couplets, "month" and "day" just make up a "Ming" word, not only the sentence is neat, full of poetry and picturesqueness, but also by the way to welcome the Tang Ming Emperor.
She compared herself to the moon, and compared the Tang Minghuang around her to the sun, the sun shines, but the moon can only shine by relying on the sun, thus subtly expressing the Ming characters, expressing her admiration for Tang Minghuang, and saying that you are the only thing I mean.
This couplet is not only a clever combination of glyphs and meanings, but also rich in deep meaning. It is not only an ingenious demonstration of the use of Chinese characters, but also rich in profound cultural connotations and historical stories, which are very worthy of learning and appreciation.