Chinese Couplets History, Categories & Quotable Examples | Duìlián

What is Chinese Couplet?

Couplets refer to two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme. Couplets appeared frequently in Early Modern English poetries, especially in Shakespeare’s sonnets. For example, in the Sonnet18, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee.” it just showed the rhyming couplet in the last word of two sentences. Chinese couplets are also composed of pairs of balanced lines with the same meter in the poetry. But there are two principles that need to follow when people write Chinese couplets. Firstly, characters in two lines must be equal in number. Secondly, characters at the opposite position must be equal in the lexical category. Take “喜滋滋迎新年, 笑盈盈辞旧岁” [xǐ zī zī yíng xīn nián, xiào yíng yíng cí jiù suì] as an example, the number of characters in two sentences are identical with each other. What’s more, the lexical category of words is also in common. Both “喜滋滋” and “笑盈盈” are adjectives; “迎” and “辞” are verbs; “新年” and “旧岁” are nouns.

Chinese couplets represent a significant part of Chinese traditional culture. It has been continued for thousands of years. In ancient times, people would carve couplets on the surface of bamboo, woods or pillars. But nowadays, people merely write couplets on papers or fabrics.

History of Chinese Couplet

The origin of Chinese couplets can be traced back to Five Dynasties (907–960), called táo fú (桃符) at first to against evil. But the earliest written Chinese couplet was from Tang dynasty (618–907) that archaeologist found at the Mogao Grottoes in Gansu province. It was recorded in Dunhuang Manuscripts (敦煌遗书 [dūn huáng yí shū ]), which meant everything comes back to life at the springtime, and people will usher in the new year of a brand-new life. (三阳始布，四序初开。福庆初新，寿禄延长 [sān yáng shǐ bù, sì xù chū kāi. fú qìng chū xīn, shòu lù yán cháng])

Couplets didn’t come popular and secular until to the Song Dynasty (960–1279). During the Song Dynasty, people began to paste couplets on their doors. The famous poet Wang Anshi (1021–1086) in Northern Song Dynasty even created a poem to depict the spectacular scene of pasting Spring Festival couplets, calledNew Year’s Day (《元日》 [yuán rì]). To the Ming Dynasty, couplets got officially appreciated and spread widely by the Hongwu Emperor (1328–1398). It was also him who invented the word “春联 [chūn lián]” and stipulated for writing Spring Festival couplets on red paper.

After hundreds of years, couplet came to its heyday during the Kangxi and Qianlong reign periods of the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912). Before the Qing Dynasty, couplets were only written for the Spring Festival. Out of the economic and cultural development, couplets turned into many different kinds other than Spring Festival couplets. What’s more, the content of couplets was related to politics, economy, and social events like weddings and funerals.

Categories of Couplet

Couplets can be divided into various categories according to its character numbers and usages.

Based on the number of characters, couplets can be fallen into short couplets, moderate couplets, and long couplets. Short couplets generally consist of ten characters, while moderate couplets contain no more than a hundred characters. And as for long couplets, they are composed of more than a hundred characters with no upper limit.

From the usages, there are Spring Festival couplets, congratulatory couplets, and elegiac couplets. Spring Festival couplets, just as its name implies, are only pasted in the Spring Festival. Congratulatory couplets are always written by people to express their sincere blessing for somebody’s birthday, wedding or pregnancy. If there’s a funeral, people will also write elegiac couplets to mourn the deceased.

Classic Chinese Couplets

• 一元复始，万象更新。 [yī yuán fù shǐ, wàn xiàng gēng xīn]

It’s a new year and also the beginning of a new life.

• 为人长存莫忘孝，尽心难报父母恩。 [wéi rén cháng cún mò wàng xiào, jìn xīn nán bào fù mǔ ēn]

It can’t be too obligatory for everyone to take good care of their parents.

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