I saw a friend asking about couplets about the book review. I found some information and sorted it out. It was very interesting to read it carefully. I sent it to everyone. It was reproduced from the study of couplets of Chinese historical figures written by Zhao Xuesong.

1. Couplet as a national treasure

Couplets, like regulated verse and Peking Opera, belong to the "national quintessence" of Chinese culture. The reason why it is said to be national quintessence is because it is only owned by Chinese culture. It is a cultural style created, developed and continuously improved by the Chinese people (including ordinary workers and intellectuals) in the long-term cultural construction and cultural heritage; it has a close and inseparable relationship with China's economic environment, social ecology, spiritual character, national psychology, folk customs, cultural genes, etc. It is a unique and unique flower nourished by China's land. Foreigners can continue to influence China's national quintessence from strangers, barriers to acceptance and appreciation, and even imitate and learn through constant appreciation and play.

However, this imitation and learning must also be carried out in a pure Chinese way. Once the pure Chinese way is separated from or abandoned, it will not be able to enter this kind of cultural symbol, and it will be even more useful. Therefore, we can say this: no foreigner, no matter how familiar he is with the national treasures of China, cannot transplant it into the cultural style of other countries, nor can it be integrated with the culture of other countries. This is because, such as couplets, regulated verses and Peking Opera, not to mention the cultural psychology and national complex they form, they are just the square Chinese characters and pronunciation methods they use, the so-called parallel couplets and the so-called straight and round characters, that is, the language and text outside of Chinese culture cannot be referenced or imitated.

According to the views of some scholars during the May Fourth period, it refers to it as the essence of national culture. Mr. Lu Xun once said: "Literally speaking, it must be unique to a country and nothing to other countries. In other words, it is a special thing..." But in that era when the national crisis was severe, Lu Xun particularly hoped that the country would be reform and revitalization, the destruction of the whole society, and the removal of the old and the new. Therefore, he turned a blind eye to scholars to "tidy up the national anecdotes" and "preserve the national quintessence" and "preserve the national quintessence" by turning a blind eye to the outside world.

He disagreed with his slogans and behaviors. He sarcastically said: "...but it may not be very good, why should it be preserved?" In his eyes, such as braids, foot binding, opium, and mahjong are all "special" things in China. Therefore, in his essays, Mr. Lu Xun used "national quintessence" as a derogatory term with a sharp irony. Nowadays, such as braids and foot binding, such as corrupt and backward national customs in the feudal era, have long become a history that will no longer be reproduced with the decline and demise of that era.

Historical remains, the construction of Chinese civilization and Chinese culture in the new era and the new century requires us to be tolerant and comprehensive, learn, learn, learn, and absorb, and use them as a healthy factor that meets the needs of new civilization and cultural construction, use the past for the present and use the foreign for the Chinese. The national quintessential, as the "element of national culture", should be regarded as an important part of this type of factor. Some people have said that China has three major national quintessentials, namely Chinese medicine.

In Chinese painting and Peking Opera, some people classify Chinese national treasures into four categories, and these four categories are different among different people. For example, some people add cooking to the above three items; some people add martial arts... In addition, some people also include Spring Festival couplets, poetry, paper cutting, riddles, crosstalk, calligraphy, national costumes, etc. in the category of national treasures. If we follow the previous definitions of "unique" and "element", the above list can actually be well deserved to be among the national treasures.

Since China's national treasure is the cultural style that has been nurtured and formed in the long-term historical and cultural ecology of our land, it is necessary to inherit, carry forward and promote it, and conduct extensive, meticulous and in-depth research, including its origins, formation and development. People have actually explored the formation, development and characteristics of couplets for a long time, discussed it in detail, and made people enlightened. However, the author has been engaged in couplet writing and research for several years. On the basis of sucking the achievements of the Fang family and mirroring the views of others, he has also formed some of his own shallow views. He is willing to record it without taking the liberty and learn from his writings to learn from his fellow friends.

2. The origin of the couplet

There are different opinions on the origin of couplets. Some talk about the Ming Dynasty, some talk about the Five Dynasties. The "Collected Couples of Ancient and Modern Times" published by Fujian People's Publishing House has a relatively complete summary of the origin of couplets. The book says that as early as before the Qin and Han Dynasties, there was a custom of hanging peach talismans in front of their homes during the Chinese New Year. The so-called peach talismans means that the legendary ghost-suppressing gods "Shen Tu" and "Yu Lei" were written on two peach wood boards, and then hung on the left and right main doors to expel evil spirits and avoid ghosts. This custom has lasted for more than a thousand years. Until the Five Dynasties, Meng Chang, the last emperor of Later Shu who liked literature and was a ritualistic elegance, was on the palace gate every year.

It feels unhappy to just write the names of two great gods, so he wants to have some fresh ideas. So, "Every year (at the end of the year), I ordered the scholar to be the lyrics, the Tao Fu, and the left and right of the sleeping door." What are these lyrics are not recorded in history books, but later generations can guess that they should be interesting and literary rhetoric, not just the names of the two gods. The first year of Meng Chang's demise, that is, before the Spring Festival in 934 AD, he created the earliest Spring Festival couplet in Chinese history. "History of Song Dynasty: Shu Family": "In the end, the scholar Xing Yinxun wrote the lyrics. Chang said because he was not a good teacher, and he wrote the poem: 'New Year's greeting Yuqing, Jia Festival

"" Like Li Yu, the late emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Meng Chang destroyed the country passed down from his ancestors at the hands of Zhao Kuangyin. Meng Chang lost the country thirty-four years before Li Yu. As the king of the country's destruction, Li Yu wrote a beautiful poem that could be passed down through the ages. Meng Chang lacked Li Yu's talent and could not write something that shone through the ages. His mediocre imagination could only put some effort into carving and crafting sentences, but it can be said that "unintentionally planting willows and willows to form shades", his two lines with dry meanings actually created a new style of literary style in Chinese literature. Zhao Kuangyin destroyed Meng Chang's country, and the habit of posting Spring Festival couplets advocated by Meng Chang became an indispensable folk tradition after the Song Dynasty.

.The poem by Wang Anshi is evidenced by Wang Anshi: "A year has passed by the sound of firecrackers, and the spring breeze brings warmth to the summer. Thousands of households are shining brightly, and new peaches are always replaced with old charms." The title of Wang Anshi's poem is "Year Day", which is the so-called first day of the Lunar New Year. The poem records that the people celebrating the Spring Festival at that time, and they still hang peach talismans in front of their homes according to the habits that have been passed down for many years. However, according to the author of "Collected Couplets of Ancient and Modern Couplets", the peach talismans in Wang Anshi's poem should have been a new style of Spring Festival couplet rather than an old style of Peach talisman. It was only in the era of Wang Anshi, the name of Spring Festival couplets had not been officially born, so people still call it "peach talismans" according to the habits they followed.

Secondly, the form of couplets was deeply influenced by Tang poetry. The Tang Dynasty was a new style of poetry in China - a period when regular poetry was fully mature. Before the Tang Dynasty, Chinese poetry also had a certain format, but after all, it was not strict enough and standardized enough. There was no strict rule in terms of length, rhythm and parallelism of the poem. When writing, the poet only followed a conventional custom, but did not have a unified and difficult standard. It was from Tang poetry that Chinese poetry entered a

A "meter" era that emphasizes rules and rules. The metrical verses of the Tang Dynasty were generally divided into four types: five-character regulated verses, five-character quatrains, seven-character regulated verses, and seven-character quatrains. These four forms of poetry not only have certain rules in terms of the number of words and sentences, but also include rigorous parallelism and rhyme. The parallelism also includes the parallelism of the word and the parallelism of the rhythm and the rhythm of the rhythm. Especially in the eight-line poem, it is divided into four pairs that match the two, namely the first couplet, the second couplet, the second couplet, the second couplet and the last couplet. The writing of the second couplet and the second couplet

The most stringent requirements are. There are clear regulations on which words in a sentence are used tone and which words are used tone. For example, some sentences should be "sing" and some should be "sing" and some should be "sing" and so on. These characteristics of Tang poetry not only affect the creation of ci, music, and Xiaoling in later generations (the researchers of the history of poetry in later generations have also called ci, music, etc.), but of course they also affect the creation of couplets. The "couple" that must be adhered to in couplet creation can be said to be directly derived from the graphic rhythm of the Tang Dynasty.

Poetry, for example, when people are enlightening children to write couplets, they use this "mantra", the so-called "wind against rain, summer against autumn", etc., this kind of enlightenment tells children that parallelism includes both the word and the meaning, as well as the tone. For example, "wind" and "rain" are nouns that represent natural objects, while in tone, "wind" is a flat tone, "rain" is a flat tone; "summer" and "autumn" are both nouns that represent the name of the season, "summer" is a flat tone, and "autumn" is a flat tone...

Although the writing of couplets is greatly influenced by the regulated verses of the Tang Dynasty, it is also impossible to see that it is actually influenced by various forms of poetry before the Tang Dynasty. The most obvious example is that its sentence structure is definitely not limited to five-character and seven-character, but from two-character to seven-character, and even many words. Moreover, by combining various sentence structures of poetry, it even creates long couplets of up to a hundred-character. The twists and turns of the long couplets of a hundred-character couplet can accommodate rich life content and thoughts that cannot be tolerated by an ordinary poem.

The shortest couplet I have seen is a couplet of two words, such as the couplets cooperating between Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty Master and Xie Jin, a bachelor of Hanlin:

Difficulty in color;

easy.

When Zhu Di was studying, he read the word "difficult color" in the book, and thought it was difficult to find the opposite word of these two words. Unexpectedly, Xie Jin immediately replied: "easy". Xie Jin's answer includes two meanings. One is that the word "difficult color" is not difficult, and the other is that "easy" itself forms a stable counterpoint with "difficult color". "Lex" and "beauty" both refer to the appearance of a person, while "difficult" and "easy" are exactly a pair of matching adjectives.

The longest couplet is no longer easy to count. Since the 180-word "Kunming Daguan Tower Long Couplet" written by Sun Ranweng, a Qing Dynasty man, came out, imitators have emerged one after another. From the Qing Dynasty to the modern era, people have already created couplets of more than 200 or even thousands of words. The couplet written by Huawu, a modern person, has a total of 1,000 words. The couplet won the National Couplet Award for Spring Festival in 1985. Zhong Yunfang, who was a member of the Qing Dynasty, was 1,612 words long, which is equivalent to an article.

From the above two couplets, we can see that the sentence structure of the couplet has actually surpassed the style of the regulated verse of the Tang Dynasty, and even the sentence pattern of poetry in previous dynasties. Couples in later generations are no longer just extensions of poetry. They also absorb the components of prose, parallel prose, Song lyrics, Yuan lyrics, folk verbs, spoken languages... in the sentence structure. Even auxiliary tone and function words - even onomatopoeia - can be included in couplet writing as needed. Therefore, the first couplet written by Meng Chang may be directly from Tang poetry in form, but with the maturity of the art of couplets, it has many "predecessors", which have been integrated and then become a self-developed, and can no longer be regarded as a variant of Tang poetry. Here we will provide a few examples collected to prove that what the author said is true.

Stop! What are you doing behind your back? So bold, come and hide it from me;

Think about it! Who can I forgive here? Turn back quickly and don’t harm others.

——City God Temple Couplet

The so-called City God is the god in charge of the city in the past superstition, which is equivalent to the projection of the magistrate or the magistrate in the underworld. In the past, one of the main responsibilities of the magistrate was to determine cases, and the same is true for the City God. The people of the people also believe that all gods have the ability to know things that ordinary people cannot know. The magistrate of the government may not know clearly because they cannot know people's secret behavior, but the City God is able to know everything. It is impossible to do anything if they want to hide it from him. The couplet borrows the tone of the City God to warn those who have bad intentions, and do not secretly take chances. It is important to know that if you want to know God, you will not do it. In terms of language, this couplet uses folk colloquial form, showing the unconventionality of the couplet in language style with playful and funny characteristics.

Humph, the bitch is so foolish, if I don’t go straight to the sky, how could there be a color TV?

Bah, it’s a reckless man. It’s because I personally stitched the cuckold and then I found a black veil.

The couplet is portrayed by a couple's ugly face of relying on their lust and nepotism to gain official positions and greed for money and bribes. It has the effect of dissection and analyzing the skin and bones. The first word in the upper and lower couplets is to start with a tone to enhance the expression effect.

Let’s look at the couplets using auxiliary tone:

The immortals and Buddhas are so powerful that they are so powerful that they are not a sword;

There are methods to subdue dragons and tigers, and how can the turtle and snakes be clouds?

The couplet with only a few words of 20 words actually used a total of six auxiliary tones.

It can be seen from this that the predecessor of couplets is definitely not limited to Tang poetry. With the continuous development of the art form of couplets in practice, it has long been able to tolerate everything, and it is precisely because of this that it can thrive into an independent literary and artistic style.

2. Couplets about historical figures

1. Classification of couplets of historical figures

As mentioned earlier, couplets about historical figures are a very important and numerous variety among couplets. Because of their importance, their existence has been endless and appealing since the couplets were found; because of their large amounts, it is almost impossible to exhaust them when collected. And there are many differences in this type of couplet, both in terms of writing and style. Couples about historical figures may appear in many types of couplets, such as those mentioned in Liang Zhangju's "Couplet Collection Talks"

Among the ten types of couplets, such as stories, temple sacrifices, temples, temples, treasures, stories, and sorrows. Most of the couplets of historical figures appearing in the above categories are those who introduce life, praise deeds, and praise merits. In addition, there are some couplets about historical figures that are different from them. For example, some couplets that appear in the form of nostalgia often have the meaning of praise, sighing and chasing, but their main intention is to use the wine glasses of ancient people to pour their own blocks, that is,

The author uses the stories of his predecessors (or others) to write his own emotions. Of course, personal feelings may not necessarily have nothing to do with the times or society. In many couplets, couplets that express personal feelings actually also include touching states such as worrying about the country and the people, feeling sad about the times, being deeply ambitious, or being full of ambitions. Many couplets that write and encourage themselves often use historical facts and stories of historical figures to express their feelings, and most of them belong to this category. There are also many couplets of characters, which may not contain much.

The lofty artistic conception, but through unique and clever artistic techniques and funny expressions, becomes a beloved and harmonious couplet. In addition to the above, the couplets of characters can also adopt a critical position like other couplets to carry out sharp and bitter confrontation, criticism, satirization and ridicule of those sinners and slanderers; and for those who are not great evil but contrary to common sense and morality, they can also advise, ridicule, and criticize.

However, in terms of the distribution of historical couplets, the most common thing people see is the part of the many famous places and historical sites. The places and historical sites have many traces left by ancient people. On the one hand, these places can be roamed and reminisced on the other hand. One of the most important contents of nostalgia is naturally the remembrance of the deeds, sentiments and spirits of ancient celebrities. Among the places and historical sites, a large number of temples, halls, pavilions, palaces, temples, gardens, buildings, platforms, corridors, temples, etc., as well as tombs, tombs, steles, etc. - This is also a Chinese characteristic that is different from any country in the world. These places are

The remains of ancient people are almost everywhere recorded by the later generations. It can be said that the ancient cultural spirit of China was largely preserved by these ancient relics, and the couplets posted and hung in these places have gradually accumulated and enriched after many years, and have played a huge role in introducing, promoting and promoting ancient Chinese culture and civilization. We can say without hesitation that in China's national treasure - couplet culture, couplets about historical figures are the most valuable and meaningful part of it, and they are also the part that we should not ignore when studying couplets.

Since as mentioned earlier, the couplets about historical figures have many characteristics in terms of form and content, when we study this part of the couplet, it is certainly necessary to classify them first so that they can be interpreted and understood and understood, and to understand them.

I think the couplets of historical figures can be roughly divided into the following categories. One is to introduce deeds, praise merits, and praise spirit; the second is to express feelings through ancient times and use history to illustrate the aspirations; the third is to use historical figures to express the author's charm, wit and cleverness, which are quite literary. The other is to criticize and ridicule. For the convenience of writing below, I give specific names to these four couplets with different contents, and call the couplets of characters with the first content "memorial couplets" (also called "commemorative couplets"), and call the second one "memorial couplets"

Couplets"; the third type is called "intelligent couplets"; the fourth type is called "sarcastic couplets". This is only a way of classifying couplets of historical figures. In addition, they can be distinguished in two ways based on the objects reflected in the couplets: A, couplets with ancestors (or elders) as the object; couplets with peers as the object; couplets with younger generations as the object. B, couplets with others as the object; couplets with themselves as the object; couplets with themselves as the object; couplets with others as the object; couplets with themselves as the object; couplets with others as the object; couplets with themselves as the object; couplets with others as the object; couplets with one person as the object; couplets with two people as the object.

These categories are actually overlapping. Among all the couplets of historical figures, the widest range, the largest number, and the most important meaning are the couplets of memorial (and the couplets of memorial are mostly based on ancestors, others and single people as objects), so this book will focus on research and analysis of this type of couplet.

2. Couplets of memorial figures (one)

China has a history of civilization for 5,000 years. In the land of China, you can explore the remains left by our predecessors wherever we go. Many years and generations ago, they lived on this land that raised an ancient nation. Their bodies are no longer there, but their hearts, the material and spiritual civilization they created have been around to this day, becoming the basis for our inheritance, development and continuous progress. Their origins of eating raw meat and drinking blood, the pioneering path, and the hard work

Continuation, arduous success and creation have all left a deep mark in the blood of our nation. The names of some of them have even become the totems and symbols of a nation. "Looking at the mountains and moving in the scenery", they have become models, examples and role models for future generations without any shame. Remembering their names means never forgetting the roots of the nation, and forever inheriting the genes of perseverance, strength, tenacity and loyalty, and forever glorifying the vast, broad, upright and perseverance.

This land is so ancient and long-lasting, and there are so many historical relics that in every province, city and even every county in the country, we can find places to commemorate our ancestors. Among these places, all the places that allow people to publicly pay homage are not only ancestors and previous generations, but are people who have made some creations, achievements, graces and contributions to the people, and are enough to leave their names in history. People establish such places, although they are to entrust their emotions, but also to allow a great spirit to be rooted in the soil and stay forever. From the Huangdi Mausoleum in Shaanxi to the Yandi Mausoleum in Hunan, from the Quzi Temple on the shore of Dongting Lake to the Dufu Thatched Cottage in the suburbs of Chengdu, from the Baogong Temple in Hefei to the West Lake

The tomb of Yue Fei, and then to the modern Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the tomb of Huanghuagang Martyrs... These scenic spots, these ruins, these historical figures left their clothes, footprints and charm, have become holy places to attract travelers and gather future generations. People stay here, see the scenery and think of their ancestors. What they feel and suck is not just the moment of spiritual tremor and the aesthetic pleasure of this scene? What this kind of experience and experience brings to many of them will be a kind of unforgettable, eternal inspiration, education and gratitude. Then, what gives birth to this kind of spiritual tremor, aesthetic pleasure and profound inspiration, great education and eternal gratitude, besides other contents of the memorial place, the role played by the indispensable couplets of characters should not be underestimated.

Mr. Yu Youren, a veteran of the Kuomintang, once wrote a couplet "Qingcheng Mountain Ancient Yellow Emperor Temple" for Qingcheng Mountain. It is now copied here and shared with readers:

When the grass is vague, there are 400 trillion children and grandchildren flying into the world;

What is the way of asking the dragon to protect China for five thousand years?

The author of the couplet, Mr. Yu Youren, was a juren in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and one of the earliest members of the Tongmenghui. He followed Mr. Sun Yat-sen to engage in the revolution, opposed the imperial system, and had a high prestige in the Kuomintang. He served as the deputy director of the Ministry of Transport of Nanjing Provisional Government, the commander-in-chief of the National Alliance in Shaanxi, the audit director of the Kuomintang government, and the director of the supervisory director. In this couplet, Mr. Yu Youren praised the immortal merits of Huangdi, the legendary ancestor of our Chinese nation, who opened up chaos, crushed grass, and enlightened ignorance, and summarized it in just five words. Then, from the macro perspective that the emergence and evolution of the five thousand years of civilization all began from this, the descendants of Yan and Huang's admiration for the glorious ancestors and their ambition to inherit the tone full of confidence and heroism.

If people travel to Sichuan, their tourist routes are generally like this: you can go to Qingcheng Mountain after leaving Chengdu. Then, go to Dujiangyan to see this project built more than 2,000 years ago, which is the earliest and greatest project in the history of world water conservancy, and visit the Second King Temple at the same time.

Erwang Temple, located on Yulei Mountain on the east bank of the Minjiang River in Dujiangyan, is a temple built to commemorate the Qin Shu County Magistrate Li Bing and his son Erlang. The temple was originally built during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and was originally named Chongde Sacrifice. After the Song Dynasty, the rulers of the feudal dynasty ordered Li Bing and his son to be kings, so they were renamed Erwang Temple. Before the water conservancy facilities were built, the western Sichuan plain in the Minjiang River area was affected by floods, with frequent disasters and no grains were collected. Since Li Bing designed and led the people to build Dujiangyan, it has become a place where water is not afraid of water.

A thousand-mile granary with stable harvests, drought and flood. Sichuan was later called the "country of Heavenly Mansion" and Dujiangyan's achievements were the first to be hit. The location of Dujiangyan was originally very difficult to build water conservancy facilities, especially under the backward production and technology conditions at that time. Li Bing proposed the governance plan to "dig deep into the beach and build low into the dam". The Dujiangyan built with this plan has been preserved and used without any damage since then, and has been the only water conservancy project in the world in history. In this temple, there is a couplet:

One family and two Yus;

Six characters are forever.

This couplet is very concise, but the feelings expressed are extraordinary. The first couplet praises Li Bing and his son for their achievements in controlling water, and compares it with the legendary Dayu. The praise is so high that it cannot be added. The second couplet specifically comments on Li Bing's experience in water control, believing that his method of "digging deep into the beach and building a dam" has been tested for thousands of years and will continue to be passed down and will benefit future generations. This couplet is a couplet with Li Bing and his son as the object, which is not common in memorial couplets. Some people comment on the characteristics of this couplet as: concise, easy to read and remember. The author believes that its main feature is its highly generalized and precise comments.

From the two examples listed above, we can see that the couplets of memorial characters are indeed the best way to express people's admiration for their ancestors and immortal characters. Moreover, the emotions that seep from the lines are full of solemnity and solemnity, piety and respect.

In ancient China, people called those who saved lives and treated people with physical diseases as doctors. In this way, they also called those who had the talent to govern the country and ensure national security and could solve problems for countries that were caught in internal and external troubles as "drug-up" "Hua Tuo's higher ideal was to be a national doctor, so "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Hua Tuo" said that he was "shamed to take medicine as his career" - this reminded us of Lu Xun. Lu Xun went to Japan to study in the past, and was studying medicine. But after witnessing the various facts that China suffered from imperialist aggression due to backwardness, he resolutely gave up studying medicine and turned to the "scream" path of using pens as a gun, and wanted to diagnose and treat the Chinese nation's deep and ill soul.

Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, which is a moving legend in ancient China. It was after he tasted hundreds of herbs in his own mouth that he invented traditional Chinese medicine and created a valuable medical heritage for the Chinese nation. But Shennong's contribution was not only that, he was also the founder of agricultural civilization, which prompted people to move from collecting fishing and hunting to the way of agricultural production.

It is such a rich and profound background that sets off the theme that this couplet wants to express. Although the text of the couplet is very simple, it does convey a grand artistic conception, which makes people feel respected after reading it.

Let me give you another example, a couplet in front of Du Fu’s tomb in Gong County.

Songs always bring tears to the people,

Still baffled with patriotism.

Du Fu was a great realistic poet of the Tang Dynasty. He was the most brilliant and dazzling superstar in the history of Chinese poetry. He was praised by later generations as the "Poet Saint". As mentioned earlier, the distinctive feature of his poetry works is that he adheres to the rigorous rhythm. He always ponders his poems repeatedly and must find the most satisfactory words and sentences, and will never be a little perfunctory. "If you don't speak astonishingly, you will never stop until you die." This famous saying is Du Fu's high summary of his writing experience and his conscious requirement for his own creative process. However, the more important reason why people admire his works is that his works always put attention to the times and care for the people first. He was born in the era when the Tang Empire was rebelled from the Kaiyuan prosperous era to the Anshi rebellion and the world collapsed. He experienced the disarray of war, suffered all kinds of sufferings in the world, and saw all the difficulties suffered by the people.

Therefore, his poems, especially the works of the middle and late periods, truly recorded what he saw and heard at that time, and poured the huge damage caused to the society by wars, the deep suffering brought to the people, and the deep feelings of suffering that he empathized with were all poured into the pen. These touching strokes deeply touched the hearts of every reader of the same era and even later generations. Because of this, Du Fu's poems are uniquely called "poetry history". "I worry about the poor year and sigh in my heart" (Du Fu: "Song of the Thoughts of the First from the Capital to Fengxian"). When reading such poems, who would not cry and feel the emotion? The author of this couplet did not introduce and boast about Du Fu's life experience and poetry achievements at all, but directly summarized the essence of his poetry, thereby highlighting his tall image as a "people-oriented" poet who was worried about the country and the people.

There is another couplet in front of Du Fu’s tomb in Gong County, which is the same in writing style.

With loyalty and love as the heart, the country's progress is difficult, and the sentences of the times are shocking and storm;

Asking for the people, the slaughter is hugging, and the poems of warning the world are so heartbroken that ghosts and gods are weeping.

The couplet has the same meaning as the previous couplet, but the brushwork is stronger and the emotions are more depressed. The couplet uses Du Fu's own poem: "The pen is shocked by the wind and rain, and the poem becomes a cry of ghosts and gods", which further highlights the characteristics of Du Fu as the "poetry saint".

2) Quoting life and promoting performance

This type of couplet of characters, explained by modern literary theory, is characterized by "realism", that is, the author will show the author's unique experiences and deeds in the couplet. However, couplets are not reportage or novel after all. They are "variants of poetry" restricted by rigorous formats. Therefore, in expressing the author's personal experience, there must be a huge difference from other art forms of prose (including novels, reportage and general prose). Due to the limitations of length and rhythm,

In terms of displaying the deeds of the object, it can only use a highly generalized way to sort out the essence, give the finishing touch, and summarize what people are familiar with, and at the same time it is the most typical event in the life of the writer. Of course, quoting life and promoting performance is not about the facts, but rather to use this to form the meaning of affirmation and praise of the writer. Therefore, the author of the couplet will sometimes comment appropriately on the basis of introducing the writer's personal performance to enhance the momentum, character and realm of the couplet. Let's take a look at this type of couplet.

Three glances and see the knowledge that the east is harmonious, and the three-point tripod is determined early;

The two rivers were in great power, and they fought south and north, and sent their deputies to stay and left two troops to go out.

——Couplets of Wuhou Temple in Chengdu

Zhuge Liang (181-234), an outstanding politician and military strategist during the Three Kingdoms period. His courtesy name was Kongming and was from Langya.

The above couplet summarizes some of the most important deeds in Zhuge Liang's life, making readers feel like Zhuge Wuhou (Zhuge Liang was named Wuxiang Hou by Liu Chan, and later generations were simply called Wuhou) and his life was like seeing Wuhou's diligent and diligent in the king's orders.

This couplet is purely a realistic couplet. The couplet only lists several of Zhuge Liang's major achievements that are well-known, and does not comment on it at all. However, since Zhuge Liang's image of shining for thousands of years has long been deeply rooted in the minds of ordinary Chinese people, as long as he mentions his deeds, it is enough to create a high and sacred association in people's minds.

Let me give you another example of a similar couplet.

How can Confucianism be discussed in vain? Water conservancy books are successful, and blood is suitable for food in the three rivers;
To be continued...