Why do we need to post blessings during the Chinese New Year? There are particularities in posting positive and negative couplets during the Spring Festival. Is your home posting them correctly?

The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and every household has the custom of posting couplets, door gods, and blessing characters. However, many people post the wrong ones year after year. For example, it is wrong to paste the character \”福\” upside down on the door; it is wrong to paste only one character \”福\” on two doors; it is wrong to paste the wrong door god or pronounce the wrong door god\’s name; it is wrong to paste the old couplets without tearing them off. It\’s not right to post the new ones directly; there are also couplets with the upper and lower couplets pasted backwards. How should I post them correctly?

Let’s talk about the word “福” first. It has a history of more than 3,000 years in our country and is one of the oldest texts. In the earliest inscriptions on oracle bones, the word \”Fu\” was like a wine container placed in front of the gods. The ancients believed that having wine symbolized a prosperous life, and having wine meant happiness and celebration, so they were blessed. The Chinese New Year stickers with the character \”福\” symbolize blessing, luck, and happiness, and express the people\’s yearning and wishes for a better life. And \”reverse blessing\” means blessing comes home and blessing comes.

Then why do we need to post blessings during the New Year? There is a folk story that Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, used the character \”福\” as a secret sign to prepare for killing people. In order to avoid this disaster, the kind-hearted Empress Ma ordered everyone in the city to put a character \”福\” on their doorsteps before dawn. Because the Queen ofNo one dared to resist the decree, so every household quickly posted the character \”福\”. There was a family who was illiterate and pasted the character \”福\” upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to search and found that every household had posted the positive blessing, but this family had posted the word \”Fu\” upside down. The emperor was very angry and immediately ordered the Yulin army to kill the whole family. When Empress Ma found out about this, she explained that because that family knew the Emperor was coming, they had put the characters on the stickers with the character \”福\” upside down. After hearing this, the emperor thought it made sense and let the family go, thus eliminating the disaster. Since then, people have had the custom of pasting the character \”福\” upside down, firstly to commemorate Queen Ma, and secondly for good luck.

There is also a legend that posting the word \”福\” actually It was invented by Jiang Taigong of Zhou Dynasty. Jiang Ziya named a large number of gods, but he only named his wife Ye as the poor god, and told her that you cannot go to any blessed place. So every household posted the word \”福\” on their homes, telling the poor god that this is a blessed place and you should not come. Therefore, the word \”福\” has the meaning of getting rid of poverty and pursuing happiness. There is a record in \”Mengliang Lu\” written by Wu Zimu in the Song Dynasty: \”Every family of scholars and common people, no matter how big or small, sweeps the door, removes dust, cleans the courtyard, changes the door god, hangs the bell, nails the peach charm, puts up the spring sign, and worships the ancestors. \”The spring sign here is to write the word \”blessing\” on red paper and stick it on the door of the house, which shows that the blessing has been there for a long time.

But if it is posted wrongly, it will be counterproductive. For example, the word \”福\” on the door must be posted correctly, because the door is the entrance and exit of the home, which represents solemnity and respect. Zhengfu means welcoming blessings and receiving blessings. Dou Fang, one room can only have one sticker If it is a double door, stick one pair on it, facing east to west, symbolizing good luck like the east sea. On the other hand, facing south, it should be on the front of the hall, so it should be on the big door. At the door, Daofu can be posted on the inside of the home. Generally, it can be posted on the door of the bathroom. Places such as kitchen doorways, water tanks, buckets, and wardrobes. Sticking upside down blessings on wardrobes means locking blessings inside. Water tanks and trash cans have to be poured out, so posting upside down blessings means good luck and wealth. However, it should be noted that it cannot be used in one room. Posting too much will bring bad luck. Posting too much will lead to repeating the same mistakes. , it is very unlucky. You can’t stick it on the door, otherwise it will be like shutting out blessings, which is unlucky. Generally, you can stick it on the door if there is a fortune or something auspicious happens at home, just for peace of mind. Small blessings will not come until great blessings come.

When should you post blessings and couplets on the 30th year? If not, post them on the 29th year. In ancient times, the timing of posting blessings was very interesting, such as posting blessings on poor families. In ancient times, poor people who were in debt would usually put the word \”blessing\” on the door from the 23rd and 24th to the 30th of the new year to keep out debt collectors, because once a door blessing is posted, it is equivalent to a blessing. During the Chinese New Year, debt collectors cannot When people come to collect debts, they are called poor blessings. Nowadays, they are usually posted on the day before New Year\’s Eve or before the sun sets on New Year\’s Eve. The order of posting is from the outside to the inside, with the head-up blessing first. , then paste the door blessings, and finally paste the upside-down blessings, which means that all the blessings for the year will flow in from the outside. But do not paste them on the first day of the new year. When posting them, you must tear off the old ones and paste the new ones. They must be firmly posted. Don\’t let the wind blow you away.

How to post couplets correctly? Couplets are divided into upper and lower couplets. The upper couplet is on the right and the lower couplet is on the left. If you can\’t distinguish the upper and lower couplets, remember that it is the same as the metrical poem. The method is to look at the last word, the last word of the first couplet The first character is the oblique tone, which is the third and fourth tones of Mandarin. The last character of the second line is the ending of the flat tone, which is the first and second tones of Mandarin. For example, in \”Spring Returns, the Land is Beautiful and Beautiful\”, the word \”Qiao\” is. The third tone in Mandarin, this is the first couplet; \”The ancient barbarians were happy and had many good things first\”, The word \”duo\” is the first sound in Mandarin, and this is the second line. If you still can\’t tell the difference, just remember the two lines of the poem \”The sun falls behind the mountains, and the Yellow River flows into the sea.\” The first half of the sentence has four oblique tones, and the second half has four tones. If you use this formula to form a couplet, you can distinguish the upper and lower couplets. If you don’t know the tone of the couplets clearly, you can post them according to the order of time or the relationship between cause and effect. For example, \”year after year\” is the order of time, and \”reunion and happiness to welcome the New Year, and happiness to celebrate the new year.\” Because only with reunion can there be happiness. This It\’s cause and effect.

Hope this article can help you, Happy New Year Don’t post the wrong door gods and couplets again! If you find it useful, please like and save it, and forward this article to your loving family!