The Spring Festival is coming soon. Before the Spring Festival, every family should paste Spring Festival couplets. The Spring Festival couplets are divided into upper couplets, lower couplets and banners. Now everyone pastes the Spring Festival couplets as a moral to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new year and wish a happy life in the coming year. So why do you stick Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival? What's the use of sticking Spring Festival couplets? Where does the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets come from? This article will explain why medicine paste Spring Festival couplets and the origin of the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets.
Spring Festival couplets are not called 'Spring Festival couplets' at the beginning, but' Taofu '. It is said that the origin of sticking Taofu is very early. At that time, sticking 'Taofu' was used to drive away demons and ghosts. It is said that there was an extremely ferocious monster in ancient times. It often did evil and endangered the people, but there was nothing to stop it. Later, there were two immortals who specialized in eliminating demons. They stopped the monster with peach branches. Therefore, it came out from the people that I hung a peach branch engraved with the names of two immortals on the door, and Demons and ghosts dared not move forward. Later, such a peach branch was called 'Tao Fu', and 'Tao Fu' became popular.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Taofu evolved into Spring Festival couplets. According to records, at that time, Meng Chang, the later Shu Lord, asked Zhang Xun to write an inscription on the peach tree. After he finished writing, Meng Chang felt that there was something wrong, so he wrote again: 'New Year's celebration, festival No. Changchun'. This was the first Spring Festival couplet in China, and it was also called a peach charm at that time. Later, with the emergence of paper, mahogany was replaced with red paper. The Spring Festival couplets really appeared in the period of Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang asked every household to paste Spring Festival couplets, so the streets and alleys were full of Spring Festival couplets.
Historical origin
Spring Festival couplets originated from the Taofu (rectangular mahogany boards hanging on both sides of the gate in the Zhou Dynasty). According to the book of rites of the later Han Dynasty, the peach talisman is six inches long and three inches wide. The two gods' Shentu 'and' Yulei 'are written on the peach board. " On the first day of the first month, a peach amulet was made to cover the household. It was named immortal wood, which was feared by all ghosts. " Therefore, the Qing Dynasty "Yanjing Shi Sui Ji" said: "the Spring Festival couplets are peach runes." In the Five Dynasties, in the court of Western Shu, some people wrote couplets on the Taofu. According to the history of the Song Dynasty & middot; Shu aristocratic family, Meng Changling, the later leader of Shu, asked Zhang Xun, a bachelor, to write about the peach board, 'because he is not a worker, he asked himself to write: & lsquo; In the new year, the festival is called Changchun & rsquo, This is the first spring festival couplet in China. Until the Song Dynasty, the Spring Festival couplets were still called 'Taofu'. In Wang Anshi's poem, there is a saying that "thousands of families are in the pupil day, always exchanging new peaches for old symbols". In the Song Dynasty, Taofu was changed from peach board to paper, called 'spring sticker'. Ming Dynasty: Taofu was renamed 'Spring Festival couplets'. Chen yunzhan of the Ming Dynasty wrote in his Zan Yun Lou zahua: 'the Spring Festival couplets were set up since the emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. In the imperial capital of Jinling, before the new year's Eve, a message was suddenly sent that a spring festival couplet should be added at the door of Gongqing's scholars and Shu's house. The emperor appeared when he was walking. " Zhu Yuanzhang not only personally went out of the city to watch laughter, but also wrote Spring Festival couplets himself. When he passed a family, he saw that there was no spring festival couplet on the door, so he went to ask. He knew that this was a castrated pig and had not asked someone to write it for him. Zhu Yuanzhang specially wrote a spring festival couplet for the eunuch, 'split the road of life and death with both hands and cut off the roots of right and wrong with one knife'. Relevant and humorous. After the promotion of emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, the Spring Festival couplets have become a custom and have been handed down to this day.
Development of Spring Festival couplets
The folk custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets on the spring festival began in the Song Dynasty and became popular in the Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, loved couplets. He not only wrote by himself, but also often encouraged his subordinates to write. One new year's Eve, he sent a message: "Gongqing scholar's family must add a spring festival couplet on the door." On the first day of the first day of the lunar new year, Taizu was very happy to see the Spring Festival couplets. When he went to a family and saw that there were no spring festival couplets on the door, he asked why. It turned out that the owner was a castrated pig. He was worried that he couldn't find someone to write Spring Festival couplets. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately wrote down the spring festival couplet "split the road of life and death with both hands and cut off the roots of right and wrong with one knife" and gave it to the family. From this story, we can see that Zhu Yuanzhang's strong advocacy of Spring Festival couplets promoted the popularity of Spring Festival couplets. By the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic nature of spring couplets had been greatly improved. The spring couplet monograph "Jinglian Conghua" compiled by Liang Zhangju discussed the origin of couplets and the characteristics of various works one by one. Spring Festival couplets had become a form of literature and art at that time.