I am divided into two parts: the first part is the characteristics of couplets, the second part is the requirements of couplets.
First, the characteristics of couplets
The artistic features of couplets are dualistic at first, and it also has the following points:
National art
As a unique art form, antithetical couplets exist only in the Chinese nation, specifically, only in the language of China, which is not found in other nations and languages in the world.
This uniqueness stems from two points: first, the formal folk custom, that is, hanging peaches symbolizes the Spring Festival; Second, the essential Chinese language, that is, Chinese characters are the characters of other countries and nationalities in different worlds, and they are square characters with pictographic characteristics. Each character can be established independently, and many numbers have only one syllable, representing one meaning; This feature provides conditions for the formation of square, neat, clear and paired characters, chapters, sentence patterns, tones and contents of couplets. Take my own mistakes as an example:
Blue sky and crescent moon appear from the clouds,
The sea sails and waves.
The father looks at the sky and looks at his children and grandchildren holding the sun and the moon;
Mother's kindness is like the sea, and she is also kind to her own blood.
Happy to meet, holding a glass of wine, we should thank the moon and the breeze for their understanding;
Excited, I climb high and look far, but I am also tired of flying geese.
Take the names of ancient sages as an example.
Three houses that bend from east to west,
Someone who speaks with a southern accent and a northern accent.
One two three four five six seven,
Filial piety is faithfulness, humility and honesty.
Far rich and near poor, courtesy and the world intersect less;
To keep friends away is to scatter the world because of wealth.
Where there is a will, there is a way. If we cross the rubicon, 120 Qin Guan will belong to Chu after all.
Hard-working people are rewarded by heaven, and they have tasted courage. More than 3,000 armour can swallow Wu.
There has never been a miracle since ancient times, and the wilderness left this mountain and river to a world of adherents;
A lifetime of helpless luck, shortcomings are still in the world, is a perfect person.
Because couplets originated from folk customs and eventually returned to the masses, couplets are not only elegant literature valued by the literary world, but also folk literature loved by the people, and will be circulated and developed for a long time.
Practical art
Couplet is an applied art and practical art, which is accompanied by people's daily life, social activities and work and study practice, so different activities have corresponding couplets.
If there are Spring Festival couplets in the Spring Festival:
Year after year,
Vientiane is updated.
As time goes on, people live longer and longer.
Dry kungfu is everywhere in spring.
Another example is the door couplet used to show the characteristics of the industry:
Gu is a national treasure,
Bread is the pillar of life. (Grain Shop Association)
Skillfully sewing thousands of clothes,
Beautify the four seasons in spring. (Clothing Store Alliance)
Stay at home before it is too late,
The cock crowed early to see the sky. (Hotel Alliance)
Another example is the layout of the living room, living room and study hall:
I often read books about my country,
Nothing is useless to body and mind.
There are hundreds of rivers and great tolerance;
The wall stands a thousand miles, and it is just without desire.
And use social networks in communication activities; Celebrate hanging activities with greetings and elegiac couplets; Scenic spots and memorial sites are connected with scenic spots and historical sites ... In short, couplets can be used in different occasions. They appear in the form of art, so it is an applied and practical art. ..
(C) the art of writing
The art of writing couplets mainly includes the following three points:
First, the words are flexible, neat and beautiful, and the number of words is not limited. Short is a few words, long is a thousand words, such as the first couplet in the world, the prison couplet of Zhong in Qing Dynasty; Secondly, some characteristics of Chinese characters constitute the art of couplets; The third is to integrate with calligraphy art and enhance each other.
(D) Temperament art
In the process of its formation and development, couplets are influenced by poems and songs, and have the following characteristics in melody:
First, pay attention to the level of words; Second, between the upper and lower couplets, pay attention to hierarchy and level; Third, pay attention to the alternation of leveling and leveling in the upper or lower couplet; Fourthly, rhetorical devices such as reduplication, polyphony and homophonic are commonly used. The purpose of these requirements is to achieve musical beauty.
Second, the writing requirements of couplets
The artistic characteristics and creative requirements of couplets are mainly manifested in his "duality". Therefore, when creating couplets, we must achieve the following six points, namely, word equivalence, part of speech relativity, structure relativity, sentence similarity, content relativity and level relativity.
(A) the number of words is equal
The first condition for the establishment of couplets is that the number of words used in the upper couplet and the lower couplet is completely equal. As couplets with few words or single sentence structure, it is easier to do. For example:
Gan Kun holds a beautiful day,
Dragon and phoenix compete. (I wrote it myself)
Look at a thousand fingers coldly,
Bow your head and be a willing ox (Lu Xun)
For long couplets with dozens of crosses or more, it is difficult to achieve the same number of words in the upper and lower couplets. In addition, there are some couplets with strange words, which require profound knowledge, rich Chinese vocabulary and the ability to control words. Another example is:
Three lights, the sun, the moon and the stars, (the messenger of Liao country made a sentence)
Four poems, elegant and smart. (Su Dongpo confronts)
Four virtues, Henry. (Su Dongpo confronts)
The difficulty of the antithesis here is that the number of words in the upper and lower couplets is difficult to be equal. The first part is the "23" structure, and the last three words are three similar things; The bottom line must also be a five-character "two-three" structure. The "three" of the first word cannot be repeated, and it must be other numbers. Even if "two" and "four" adjacent to "three" refer to two or four things, one or more words will be missing. The beauty of Su Dongpo's antithesis lies in solving this problem, because "elegance" is the "elegance" in the Book of Songs, including "elegance" and "Xiaoya"; "Four virtues" originally included "Yuan Henry's chastity". However, the word "chastity" in the name of the current emperor should be avoided, so it can be omitted.
The sword is self-defeating, and the fairy Buddha has no ears;
There are means to subdue dragons and tigers, and turtles and snakes are floating clouds. (Su Dongpo wrote Guangdong Zhenwu Temple Union)
The first couplet uses three function words of "Yan", "Er" and "Yi" in classical Chinese, and the second couplet also uses three words of "Yun", "Hu" and "Zai" to correct it, which is a wonderful risk. Without a deep knowledge of language, literature and writing, it is difficult to do it.
(B) the same part of speech
The duality of couplets requires that the upper and lower couplets are relative words or phrases, and the parts of speech must be consistent, that is, nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, adverbs to adverbs, prepositions to prepositions, that is, similar words to similar words. In the past, the emphasis on "real to real, virtual to virtual" was inaccurate and should be corrected. For example:
It's cold outside the flowers.
(Name) (Location) (Name) (Name) (Description)
Liu Bian Jingwei Zhejiang Tide (Couplet of Wenxinguo Temple in Wenzhou, Zhejiang)
The word "tide" at the end of the next joint sentence should be a noun, but the form of "borrow" here, that is, the meaning of the adjective "tide" is opposite to the adjective "cold" above, except this word, the rest are completely opposite to similar words.
With the rich development of the dual art of Chinese language and writing, the dual requirements of the same part of speech of couplets are not only reflected in the relative between the same big words, but also in the relative between the same small words. Because there are many small words under some words (for example, nouns can be divided into fourteen categories), they are omitted here.
(3) the corresponding structure
The structural correspondence of couplets means that the upper couplet and the lower couplet must take care of each other and be symmetrical in syntactic structure, that is, the subject-predicate structure is opposite to the subject-predicate structure, the verb-object structure is opposite to the verb-object structure, the radical structure is opposite to the radical structure, and the complex sentence is opposite to the complex sentence.
(1) subject-predicate structure versus subject-predicate structure. For example, Yangshuo drew a couplet on the mountain:
Water is a green ribbon,
(subject) (predicate)
The mountain is the Hosta.
(2) Verb-object structure and verb-object structure. For example, a couplet of Jiufeng Mountain in Yangshuo:
Is it boring without water?
(verb) (guest)
Cut the sorrow of Jianmang Mountain.
(3) The oblique structure is opposite to the oblique structure. For example, a couplet of the West Lake "Hu Xinting":
There are still poor people mourning for jathyapple in the four seasons;
(Partial) (Front)
Six bridges and six flowers, no gaps in planting mulberry and hemp.
(4) complex sentences are turned into complex sentences. If the upper and lower couplet are connected together, it is a complex sentence, which only shows that the complex sentences in the upper and lower couplet should be dual. For example, there is a couplet in Lidui Park, guanxian, Sichuan:
Two thousand years of good things, cars on the same track, books in the same language, rich and full of water;
Tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land, active water, crops have roots, Chinese mainland is big.
In couplets, "cars are on the same track, books are in the same language" means "water is active, crops have roots", that is, coordinate complex sentences to coordinate complex sentences. For example, the following two couplets are also of this type:
Learning is close to knowledge, doing is close to benevolence, and knowing shame is close to courage;
Wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be bent.
Why do you have to read all the books of sages, and filial piety is practical;
Even if we all know what's going on in the world, it's always a fool not to advance or to retreat.
Symmetry is required in large syntactic structures, and duality of couplets is also required in small phrases, that is, subject to subject, predicate to predicate, object to object, complement to complement, attribute to attribute and adverbial to adverbial.
(4) The sentence patterns are similar.
The so-called sentence pattern refers to the phrases and rhythms that make up a sentence. In five-character poems, the general sentence pattern is "two, two, one" or "two, three"; In seven-character poems, the general sentence pattern is "two, two, two, one" or "two, two, three"; The sentence pattern of parallel prose is the rhythm of "four or six", so it is also called "four or six sentence pattern" couplet, because the number of words is flexible, the length is not limited, and there is no fixed sentence pattern. But as far as a couplet is concerned, the sentence patterns of the upper couplet and the lower couplet must be consistent, otherwise it will cause "mismatch", that is, it cannot be counted as a couplet. Examples are as follows:
When it doesn't rain, the mountains become wet.
Cloudless water is turbid.
The rhythm of the upper couplet and the lower couplet is "two, three" sentences.
The sail is far and wide,
There were months in the river.
The rhythm of upper couplet and lower couplet is "two, two, one" sentence pattern.
Running water misses the past,
Peach blossoms are still smiling in the spring breeze.
The rhythm of the first part and the second part is "two, two, three" sentences.
This is a lovely place for Qian Fan,
I will be a half-moon fairy occasionally.
The rhythm of the upper and lower couplet is "two, one, four" sentences.
(5) Content-related.
Couplets, as the name implies, should not only be dual, but also be related. Duality focuses on the use of formal words to make sentences, and relevance is mainly manifested in the content of the upper and lower couplets. If there is no organic connection in content, the duality of the upper and lower couplets will be neat. This is not a good connection, but just two unrelated sentences. In other words, duality is a person's clothes, and the related content of the upper and lower links is the body.
Examples of couplets that are not considered as couplets or are not good couplets are as follows:
Luz rode a fat horse,
Tang Yao rode a sick pig.
Keywords library management, information search,
Watching tigers and wolves in the zoo. (There is no connection between the content up and down)
The green water in front of the door will disperse,
The green hills in the room jumped out.
Good couplets are content-related, identical and reflect specific themes, such as:
Shushan has a road service as its path.
There is no limit to learning the sea.
If you are constant, why do you sleep at night?
The most useless thing is to be frozen for ten days a day.
Couplets are also divided into "right" and "right": both upper and lower couplets are called "right" and the right one is called "right".
For example, the antithetical couplet of "Zheng Shuo": After reading it, people know the thickness of paper and travel all over the mountains and rivers.
Another example is antithetical couplets: three sentences of enmity and eternal hatred, a box of loyal bones and incense in old age.
(6) hierarchy and level.
The requirement of hierarchy and level is to make couplets read with clear rhythm, harmonious tone, ups and downs, cadence and cadence, forming a musical beauty. To make good use of flat tones, we must first understand the "four tones" of China's melody: flat tones, rising tones, rising tones and falling tones. In ancient Chinese, the word "ping" was regarded as "ping" and "ascending, descending and entering" as "promise"; In modern Chinese, all words belonging to Yang Ping are "Ping", and all words belonging to Shang Sheng and De Sheng are "Xu".
(1) There are still several issues that need attention when using the flat law in the creation of couplets:
(1) On the premise that the word does not hurt the meaning, the foot of the sentence (the last word) should be as flat as possible.
(2) In long couplets, the words of clause pause and level tone should be alternated, but opposite.
(3) The words paused on each syllable of the upper couplet and the lower couplet, and the words paused on each clause should be flat.
(2) Under special circumstances, couplets can be handled flexibly in terms of leveling, such as:
The first word of (1) is linked up and down, regardless of whether the hierarchy is relative or not. For example:
The article about serving the country takes Du Li as an example and emphasizes the Spring and Autumn Period. (Written by Lao She)
Always speak carelessly, don't give your heart to the lyricist. (Written by Yu Dafu)
(2) In principle, the feet of couplets are "flat on the top and flat on the bottom". However, if it is difficult to do it because of limited content, you can simply do it, and you can't damage your meaning because of words and sounds. For example:
Mourning the fall of a generation of superstars, the world is infinitely sad (Ping);
Fortunately, peaches and plums are reborn all over Taiwan and will last forever (Ping).
Writing ghosts and writing demons is superior;
Stab greed stab abuse, three points to the bone. (Guo Moruo's title "Liaozhai" couplet)
Anger and the people of the world (peace),
Throughout the ages, a benevolent saint is not confused (Ping).
(3) Couplets have some special characters, words and duality, which can be eclectic. Specifically, it is mainly: the same word can be relatively flat; Technical terms can be relatively informal; Classical Chinese function words can be relatively informal and flat; If the skills are strange, they can be relatively informal and plain. For example:
The song of peach blossom and flowing water,
Between the shade and the grass. (West Lake Ge Linglian)
People who get drunk after three drinks (both "ye" and "Hu" are equal)
Go out with a winding arch. (Hotel Alliance)
If you don't cultivate morality, I will die; (Yi and Hu are all flat)
If you don't change, will you come to see me? (City God Temple Alliance)
Rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, except immortals; (The upper part is connected with the word diet)
Filial piety and faithfulness, humility and faithfulness, no copper and no silver to do. (The second part connects seven people.