1, form
The Spring Festival is the "first of a hundred festivals" of the Chinese nation.
In the historical civilization of China, there are many customs to celebrate the Spring Festival. Up to now, the most widely preserved customs of the Han people, especially in rural areas, are to paste Spring Festival couplets and door gods.
Sticking Spring Festival couplets is the first thing for Han people to celebrate the Spring Festival. Whenever the Spring Festival approaches, every household will put brand-new Spring Festival couplets on both sides of the gate, with black characters on a red background, which is steady and bright. Express the family's best wishes for the new year, such as "six animals prosper and the grain is abundant"; Or it is related to the chronological culture of the Chinese nation. The names of the zodiac are embedded in the Spring Festival couplets, such as "Rat", "Bull", "Tiger", "Rabbit", "Dragon", "Snake", "Horse" and "Sheep", such as "koi fish flies to Yuan Zhi; Xiangyang feels pro-kindness and so on. Some Spring Festival couplets also focus on reflecting different "happiness views" of different industries and families. Therefore, it is undoubtedly a meaningful way to observe the folk customs of the Han nationality by carefully studying the Spring Festival couplets posted by people during the Spring Festival.
When did the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets begin? So far, there is no accurate material research. But it probably started in the post-Shu period more than 1000 years ago, which can be confirmed in historical records. In addition, according to Wang Zhu Collection and Yanjing Sui Collection, the prototype of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao".
2. Meaning
As early as more than 2,000 years ago during the Warring States Period, "peach stalks", also known as "peach symbols", were hung in the Central Plains. Fu Cha Dunchong's Yanjing Spring Festival couplets in Qing Dynasty recorded: "Spring Festival couplets are also Fu Tao. Since entering the customs, some scholars have written Spring Festival couplets under the eaves of the city in order to moisten their pens. After the sacrifice, it gradually tilted up and thousands of families took on a new look. " Pop away from the traditional Spring Festival couplets; The relationship between Spring Festival couplets and peach symbols can also be seen in Wang Anshi's poem "Everything is Renewed" in the Song Dynasty. "Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old ones."
What is a peach symbol? According to Huainanzi, this "peach symbol" is made of peach wood one inch wide and seven or eight inches long. Write the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board and hang them on both sides of the door. Or draw these two gods-left and right. The ancients used Fu Tao's calligraphy and painting Er Shen to suppress evil spirits. This is also commonly known as the "door god" by Han people. In the Five Dynasties of more than 700 AD, Meng Changjun, the queen of Shu, wrote "New Year's Qing Yu, No Festival A". Changchun. " It is the earliest Spring Festival couplets in China.
However, in the Song Dynasty, Spring Festival couplets were still called "Fu Tao". Couplets are not only carved on peach symbols, but also pushed on pillars, which are later called "couplets". After the Song Dynasty, Yichun Post Station used couplets to write powder notes. Some people collect the ancient sayings of The Book of Songs, while others collect Tang and Song poems. According to legend, there is Wang Li's Spring Festival couplets: "The northern country is vast, and thousands of doors are fresh." This is the Spring Festival couplets hanging on people's teeth and cheeks.
Fu Tao was really called Spring Festival couplets in the Ming Dynasty. According to Ming Dynasty scholar Chen, "Spring Festival couplets began in". Jinling, the imperial capital (now Nanjing), don't send messages before New Year's Eve. You should add a pair of Spring Festival couplets at the door, and the emperor will go out to watch it. "Zhu Yuanzhang not only traveled incognito personally, watched the laughter, but also personally presented the Spring Festival couplets to Bachelor Tao An and others. The emperor's advocacy made the Spring Festival couplets increasingly prosperous, and finally formed an enduring fashion. Couplets are called "couplets", commonly known as pairs. Concise and profound, neat and balanced, word for word, is a unique art form of Chinese language. It can be said that couplet art is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation. The types of couplets can be divided into Spring Festival couplets, wedding couplets, birthday couplets, elegiac couplets, filial couplets, decorative couplets, industry couplets, communication couplets and miscellaneous couplets (including humorous couplets).
3. According to legend, in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, an ancient myth in China, there is a ghost domain with a mountain in the middle, a big peach tree covering 3,000 miles, and a golden rooster at the top. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So the Han people carved their faces out of peach wood and put them at the door to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao". In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one for killing evil spirits, the other for expressing good wishes, and the third for decorating the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.