春联 Spring Festival Couplets

春联 Spring Festival Couplets 春联是春节文化中的重要习俗。春联的历史和知识你了解多少？你能用英文向外国朋友介绍春联吗？今天小咖不仅给你带来关于春联知识的双语内容，还为你准备了十对春联的中英对照版。赶紧学起来，下次向外国朋友介绍春联的时候一定不能词穷哦~ What are Spring Festival Couplets? Writing Spring Festival Couplets with black or golden characters written on red paper, Spring Festival Couplets are composed of a pair of poetry lines vertically pasted on both sides of the front door and a four-character horizontal scroll affixed above the doorframe. Pasting couplets expresses people’s delight in the festival and wishes for a better life in the coming year. 写春联要求用红纸，黑字或金字。春联是由一对诗词组成，竖着贴在门框的两侧。另有一张四字的横批贴在门框的上方。 贴春联表达了人们在节日期间的喜悦心情以及对新的一年的美好愿望。 Features The first line (upper scroll) and the second line (lower scroll) have parallel structures and antithetical meanings. The two lines should have an equal number of characters, while their meaning must be related and antithetical. There must be a one-to-one correspondence between the two lines. The tone pattern is emphasized but rhythm is not important. The horizontal scroll is a four-character phrase, which sums up the two lines’ meaning. 上联和下联的内容结构一定要对等，词性一致。两个句子要有相等的字数，语意也要相关。上下联语句的结构应以一字（一个音节）为一个节奏。春联对音序很讲究传统上叫做“仄起平收”。横批的四个字是上联和下联的总结。 Legend and History Spring Couplets originated from Taofu, an inscription on boards made from peach trees in the Zhou Dynasty (1046 - 256 BC). According to the legend, in the ghost world, a rooster perching in a big peach tree will crow at dawn to call all the traveling ghosts back. In front of the entrance of the dark world, there are two guards named Shentu and Yulei. If the ghosts harm any people at night, the guards will kill them as the tiger’s breakfast. People believed that peach trees can scare and subdue evil things, so they hung peach boards in front of the doors with the guards’ names written or inscribed on them. 传说春联来源于桃符，在周朝人们在桃木板刻上字，有压邪驱鬼的作用。 据说，在鬼神的世界里，有一只公鸡会在日出的时候在一个大桃树的树顶报晓，以此来召唤各种妖魔鬼怪。天帝怕鬼怪下山到人间作祟，派了两个神将去把守鬼门，一个叫神荼，一个叫郁垒。两员神将专门监察鬼怪的行为。发现哪个鬼怪为非作歹，便用草绳捆起来送去喂老虎。于是，那时候，人们每逢过年，便用两块桃木刻上神荼、郁垒的像或写上他俩的名字，挂在门的两边，叫做桃符，以示驱灾压邪。 During the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD), the wood board was replaced by paper, and people focused more on bright wishes for the future. The custom became popular in Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD). When the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang traveled for inspection, he found those pairs of scrolls interesting. In order to advocate and promote this cultural activity, he ordered all household to paste the scrolls during the Chinese New Year. This tradition continues today. 到了宋朝，纸张代替了桃符，人们逐渐开始写上对将来美好的期望。这个习俗到了明朝越加得到了推广。有一次，朱元璋到民间寻访，偶然间看到了对联。以便推广这一文化活动，他随后要求各家各户在春节期间张贴对联以表庆祝。这一传统一直保留至今。 How to Read the Spring Festival Couplets? The order in traditional Chinese writing is different from that in western countries or modern China. In the past, people were accustomed to writing in vertical lines from right to left. The traditional couplets followed this rule, but things have changed. Sometimes people don't follow the rules, and they even make mistakes. Here is the way to read Spring Festival Couplets: 写春联的顺序和西方国家或现代中国的写法是有区别的。在过去，人们习惯从右边开始竖着写字。传统的春联延续了这一写法。但是人们也不是总按着规矩来，所以出现了一些新变化。以下是对春联的方法： First, look at the horizontal scroll. If the four characters are written from left to right, the upper scroll will be on the left and the lower scroll on the right. If the characters of the horizontal scroll are reversed, the two side scrolls should be read from right to left. 首先，先要读横批。如果横批上的四个字是从左到右写出来的，那么上联就是在左边，下联在右边。如果横批上的字是由右至左的，上联就是在门框的右边了。 How to Paste? Pasting couplets is not an easy job. There are requirements for both when to paste and the correct order. Usually, they should be pasted before New Year’s Eve, and the best time is between 13:00  and 15:00 on the 29th of lunar December. The correct pasting order is: upper scroll → lower scroll → horizontal scroll. You can distinguish the upper and lower scrolls from the writing order of the horizontal scroll. 贴春联并非易事。对何时贴和粘贴的位置是有讲究的。通常，应该在大年除夕之前贴上，最好的时段应在阴历12月29日的下午1点和3点之间。正确的粘贴顺序为：上联 → 下联→ 横批。上下联可以从横批语句的顺序分辨出来。