The spring breeze is blowing, the Spring Festival is approaching, and the streets and alleys are filled with a festive atmosphere. The façade of the shop is hung with red-hot couplets, hoping for a prosperous business. In the countryside, every household also pasted new couplets on the door to welcome the arrival of the new year.
Couplets, an ancient cultural tradition, have a long history. Its history can be traced back to the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, when Meng Chang, the monarch of the Later Shu Kingdom, hung a pair at the door of the bedroom, commonly known as the couplet. The couplet should not only be formatted, but also decent, appropriate, and far-reaching. Therefore, as a special historical culture, it has been passed down by people to this day.
The couplet is concise, simple and easy to understand, and the ancients showed a strong interest in it. In ancient times, in the context of the lack of modern entertainment, couplets became a great pleasure in people's lives and were highly regarded. Literati and writers often used couplets to learn from each other, enhance their talents, and enhance their brotherhood. And between talented people and talented women, couplets have become used for flirting and promoting mutual understanding and communication.
Looking back at the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, a prodigy named Li Kaixian emerged in Jinan, Shandong. Born in a scholarly family, he has shown amazing talent since childhood. Although he was only seven years old, he was able to write poems and compositions, which attracted the admiration of those around him. In particular, a pair battle with the local Jinshitian Xiucai made Li Kaixian famous.
On that day, Li Kaixian's family held a birthday banquet, and the guests gathered and the atmosphere was warm. Tian Xiucai hit the nail on the head and presented the couplet to the birthday star: "Taizun Weng, Zun Weng is on top, up to three thousand miles into the sky, the Jade Emperor builds a building, and you live upstairs." "The rhetoric is gorgeous, the artistic conception is far-reaching, and it is breathtaking. And the next couplet is even more wonderful: "Foolish late life, late birth in the bottom, down to the eighteenth layer of hell, the dragon king digs the well, and I dig mud at the bottom of the well." The contrast and clever use of exaggeration won the applause of the guests.
Li Kaixian, as the grandson of the birthday star, is young and cute, and has elegant manners. Tian Xiucai was quite curious about his knowledge and talent, so he proposed a couplet to test him: "The willow by the wall, the wife by the pillow, no leaves and no green, no night and no kiss." This link is quite difficult, and requires that the words "willow" and "wife" be handled extremely skillfully. And Li Kaixian, although young, showed wisdom and inspiration beyond his age, and quickly gave a subtle couplet: "The bird in the cage, the grain in the warehouse, there is a frame must jump, and there is a price." The guests applauded one after another, and Tian Xiucai was even more impressed by him.
Li Kaixian's talent was appreciated by Tian Xiucai, and it also attracted wider attention. More than ten years later, in the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), Li Kaixian was promoted in one fell swoop, and then he was named in the gold list, and he embarked on the road of official career.
To this day, as a traditional cultural form, couplets are still being inherited and developed among the people. Every festive season, every household sticks couplets to welcome the New Year. Its concise and clear form of expression is deeply loved by people and has become a unique part of Chinese culture.