Heartless match——a perfect fit that has nothing to do with each other

It’s difficult to choose colors; it’s easy. Yes, this is indeed a couplet. Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di once said to the civil official Xie Jin, “I have an upper couplet that reads ‘Beauty is hard to grasp,’ but I just can’t think of a lower couplet.” ” Xie Jin replied immediately, “It’s easy.” ” Zhu Di said, “Since you say it’s easy, then come up with a matching couplet.” ” Xie Jin said, “Didn’t I figure it out?” ” Zhu Di was stunned for a long time before he finally understood. “The phrase “It is difficult to show affection” comes from The Analects, Chapter Wei Zheng: “Zi Xia asked about filial piety, and the Master said, ‘It is difficult to show affection.’” ’”It means that it is difficult for children to serve their parents while always maintaining a pleasant expression. Jie Jin’s response of “easy” can be found in Dong Fang Shuo’s “On the Non-Existence of Sages” from the Western Han Dynasty: “Alas!” Is it possible? Is it possible? It’s no easy task! ……But now it is different; instead, it is regarded as an act of slandering the monarch, a lack of loyalty due to a subject. As a result, one suffers greatly, becomes known as unfortunate, and even one’s ancestors are brought into disrepute, becoming the subject of mockery throughout the world. Hence, it can certainly be said that this is no easy task! ” It means that pointing out faults and strengths in front of the king is not something to be done lightly. Xie Jin cleverly used the character \"rong\" to mean appearance, which pairs well with \"se\" (complexion); meanwhile, \"yi\" and \"nan\" are antonyms to each other, showing great ingenuity.

Flowers begin to bloom in the courtyard. Mr. Li, the esteemed sir, the upper line describes a scene where flowers of all kinds are in full bloom in the courtyard； The second line, on the other hand, is a title for a person, and its meaning cannot be matched to that of the first line. Yet upon closer inspection, it can be seen that the second line makes use of triple metaphorical correspondence (“Your Excellency” refers both to a form of respectful address and to the area beneath a pavilion) ； ““Li” refers both to a surname and to the plum tree ； “\"Sir\" serves both as a title of respect and as an expression meaning \"the first to grow.\" It forms a perfect match with each character in the upper line: \"ting\" and \"ge\" are terms related to small structures, \"qian\" and \"xia\" are place nouns, \"hua\" and \"li\" are plant names, \"shi\" and \"xian\" are adverbs used as adverbials, and \"fang\" and \"sheng\" are verbs.

On the days when the talents in the imperial court compete for glory: France, Netherlands, Belgium. The upper line of this verse comes from \"Zizhi Tongjian\": \"Someone said to Di Renjie, ‘All the talented people in the world are gathered in the imperial court!’\" ’”Refers to the large number of students that Di Renjie, a famous official from the Tang Dynasty, had ； The second line consists of three **famous European countries. Although the two lines represent opposite directions, each pair of words within them is perfectly matched: “France” corresponds to “officialdom,” “Netherlands” to “peaches,” “Orchids” to “plums,” “competing” to “striving,” “profit” to “glory,” and “time” to “day.”

The tree is half-destroyed; the axe is laid aside. Xiao He’s three strategies ensured Liu’s safety. This too is a pair of vivid and expressive lines. The meanings of the two sentences are completely unrelated; the first sentence is an ancient poem that urges people to take care of trees and avoid cutting them down indiscriminately. The second line, on the other hand, contrasts with it through the historical story of Xiao He offering strategies that helped establish the Han dynasty; although they are vastly different, they are connected in terms of their linguistic characteristics, creating a perfect harmony as if meant by fate itself. The final character of the upper line, “ “axe”, refers to a tool, while the final character of the lower line, “Liu”, denotes a weapon; in this context it refers to Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty ； ““Tree” as opposed to “Xiao”; Xiao is the name of a plant, namely artemisia, which is the counterpart of plants ； “\"Yi\" corresponds to \"He\"; they are function words that are opposite to each other ； “\"Half-disabled\" versus \"three strategies\" are quantifiers in relative form ； “Both \"xiu zong\" and \"ding an\" are function words that are in a relative relationship to each other. In this phrase, \"zán\" and \"cè\" may not seem to form a proper antithetic pair at first glance, but both can be regarded as verbs here: \"zán\" means to harm, while \"cè\" implies to support or hold onto, thus the pairing remains well-balanced.

In the rainy season of May, with Samsung brandy around, during one such rainy season at the beginning of the Republic of China era, Wang Jingwei came up with a poetic line to stimulate the mood at a banquet – “May, a time of heavy rain.” As everyone was pondering, the waiter’s call came through: “Triple Star brandy.” ” At this moment, the quick-witted one among them suddenly clapped his hands and exclaimed, “Isn’t this perfectly fitting?” ”If you think about it carefully, it truly is a perfectly natural matching couplet. “Three” against “five”, “star” against “moon”, “Bailan” against “Huangmei”, “earth” against “sky”. How neat, how wonderful! It’s truly a flawless pair of \"heartless duets\".

Upper line: Tang tri-color pottery; Lower line: Uniform color. The upper line refers to an ancient craft, while the lower line relates to the values in mahjong. ““Tang” is the counterpart to the dynasty name “Qing”. Upper line: Qiao Guolao; Lower line: Shijiazhuang. In this couplet, the upper line refers to a figure from the Three Kingdoms period, while the lower line is the name of a place ； Lao Dui Zhuang refers to Laozi in contrast to Zhuangzi.

Upper line: Zizhi Tongjian; Lower line: Physical lens. The upper line is the title of an ancient book, while the lower line is a scientific instrument. The first character combined forms “materials”, and the two characters combined form “governance”. Jian is the ancient name for a mirror. Upper couplet: That day’s promise weighed a thousand pounds. Lower couplet: There’s no three hundred taels of silver here. Both couplets are common sayings.

This post was last edited by sifangok on 2016-11-10 at 17:53. When reading novels set in ancient times, there are so many protagonists who like to show off. Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, loved to write couplets for his doorways, but they were stolen by others as soon as they were posted. One New Year’s Eve, he came up with a clever way to keep thieves away: he wrote the following couplet on his doorframe: “Good fortune never comes alone; misfortune never arrives singly.” Those who tried to steal the couplets shook their heads and left after seeing it. On a morning in the first month of the lunar calendar, Wang Xizhi added three characters at the end of each line, thereby creating a truly excellent piece of art with complete meaning: Good fortune never comes alone; it arrived today. Misfortune never comes singly; it came last night

The tutor’s surname was Shi. One day, while teaching, he saw a sparrow dead outside the wall, and so he came up with an upper couplet: \"A little bird dies behind the bricks.\" Before he could finish speaking, a clever student replied: \"Birds and beasts, Mr. Shi.\" Yes, it’s very neat.