Spring couplets

Source: [Gannan Daily]

□Li Fan

After New Year’s Day, the Spring Festival is not far away. Spring couplets, as a treasure in traditional Chinese culture, are like a clear spring. With their unique artistic charm, they flow into thousands of households and become an indispensable part of the Spring Festival.

Speaking of Spring Festival couplets, I can’t help but think of some scenes during the New Year when I was a child. At that time, there were no ready-made Spring Festival couplets to buy on the street. To put up Spring Festival couplets during the New Year, people in the village would buy red paper in advance. At the end of the year, they would go to Grandpa Wu’s house to ask for a pair of calligraphy treasures.

Grandpa Wu is a middle school Chinese teacher. He is warm and modest. He always responds to anyone who comes to ask for help, no matter how close or distant he is. Cutting paper, grinding ink, writing… seeing off the host family and welcoming the west family, the fifth grandfather was very busy, but never tired of it.

Grandpa Wu is very particular about writing Spring Festival couplets. Ordinary people would write, \”The virtues inherited from the family will flourish for a long time, and the country will expand its ambitions in spring\”, or \”The spring breeze will bring good fortune to the house, and the years will renew the blessings in the door.\” For students, he would usually ask about their academic status first, and then write a message on red paper, \”If a bird wants to fly high, it flaps its wings first; if a person wants to make progress, he should study more.\” If a newly married couple came to ask for Spring Festival couplets, he would wish them that \”the red plum blossoms will bloom and the green willows will smile and they will be united forever.\” Grandpa Wu is particularly attentive to the elderly in the village. In addition to giving them a pair of Spring Festival couplets that read, \”The snow is cold and the frost is cold, and the strong pines are proud of their age, but the wind is warm and the sun is warm for thousands of years, and the ancient willows are still fighting for spring.\” He will also give them a couplet. Red envelopes to show filial piety and blessing.

The content of the Spring Festival couplets written by Grandpa Wu is rich and colorful, including a summary of the past years, a longing for future life, and an expression of feelings about his family and country, showing his profound cultural heritage and extraordinary Artistic literacy. If you take a closer look at the calligraphy, it will be even more amazing. There are official scripts, cursive scripts, and regular scripts. Every kind of calligraphy is open and closed, with great freedom. The horizontal and vertical lines contain the great road of heaven and earth; the dots and folds reveal the philosophy of life. The black characters on red paper are well-proportioned, making people feel an incomparable sense of beauty when admiring them.

At that time, I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, and I was half a \”scholar\” in my family. In order to increase my knowledge, my father always arranged for me to ask Grandpa Fifth for Spring Festival couplets. Grandpa Wu is a \”talkative\”. He is worried that the tradition of writing Spring Festival couplets will be lost in the hands of future generations, so he often takes the trouble to popularize the knowledge of Spring Festival couplets to us. \”Clouds versus fog, snow versus wind, evening light versus clear sky. Spring versus summer, autumn versus winter, green leaves versus pine trees…\” This antiphonal song was first taught to me by Grandpa Wu.

It’s interesting to say that my friend Xiao Fengqiu is a very ignorant guy. He learned a little bit from Grandpa Wu and thought he had the knack of writing Spring Festival couplets. So, during the Chinese New Year the next year, He himself wrote a Spring Festival couplets and posted them at the door in a serious manner. What he wrote in the first line was \”There was nothing more last year\”, the second line was \”There is more this year\”, and he wrote \”It\’s another New Year today\”. When everyone saw it, they couldn\’t help laughing. Fengqiu\’s father was illiterate and felt embarrassed when everyone laughed, so he scolded Fengqiu. But Grandpa Wu didn’t laugh after reading the Spring Festival couplets written by Fengqiu.It is said that he is not good at writing, but it is certain that he is good at learning, dares to try, and is a malleable talent. For this reason, Grandpa Wu also presented Fengqiu with a writing brush, an inkstone and a copy of \”New Edition of Poetry Rhythm\”.

Grandpa Fifth really didn’t make a mistake. A few years later, Fengqiu was admitted to the provincial capital university with excellent results. After graduation, he worked as a reporter in a newspaper. He was good at writing news reports and made great achievements in poetry and couplets. As for me, influenced by my fifth grandfather, I became obsessed with Spring Festival couplets. Although I can\’t write them well, every time I see Spring Festival couplets posted on someone\’s door, I always stop and ponder them.

In my opinion, the charm of Spring Festival couplets lies not only in the beauty of calligraphy, but also in the rhythm and artistic conception of the words. A good Spring Festival couplet, with clever conception and neat contrasts, can often outline the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival in just a few words. It not only expresses people\’s yearning for a better life, but also embodies the aesthetic taste and philosophical thoughts of the Chinese people.

At the end of last year, Fengqiu and I went back to our hometown to celebrate the New Year and visited Grandpa Wu together. Grandpa Wu is over 90 years old and is in good health. He is still keen on helping people in the village write Spring Festival couplets. However, fewer and fewer people come to him to write Spring Festival couplets. In recent years, with the advancement of science and technology, the forms of Spring Festival couplets have been continuously enriched and innovated. From the handwritten Spring Festival couplets in the past to the current machine printing, from single text expression to creative design with pictures and texts, Spring Festival couplets are entering people\’s lives in a more diverse and fashionable way.

When I chatted with Grandpa Wu about the changes in Spring Festival couplets, he was very wise and open-minded. He said that whether handwritten Spring Festival couplets or machine-made Spring Festival couplets are the inheritance and protection of traditional culture, they contain the same cultural connotation and emotional value. As long as the folks are in need, I will keep writing.

While we were talking, someone came in and asked to write Spring Festival couplets. Everyone smiled knowingly. The first couplet came out in Fengqiu, and I wrote the second couplet, which was written by the fifth grandfather. The three of us, grandfather and grandson, jointly completed a Spring Festival couplet – laughter and laughter proclaimed good people in politics and opened the way to wealth, and spring breezes made the country strong and the people prosperous. New heaven.

Another year has passed in the blink of an eye. The Spring Festival is getting closer and closer. At this moment, I seem to see the red Spring Festival couplets in my hometown waving to me.

This article is from [Gannan Daily] and represents only the author’s views. The National Party Media Information Public Platform provides information release and dissemination services.

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