The Spring Festival couplet is to be pasted on doorposts or hall pillars, hence also known as the doorpost scroll¹. It consists of two vertical² lines and one horizontal line, and all the lines convey the idea of good luck or jubilation³, constituting a unique form in the Chinese literature.

The Chinese Festival couplet was born of the peachwood charm. A legendary⁴ story has it that long long ago, two brothers named Shen Tu and Yu Lei lived in a stone house near a big lush peach tree in the DushouMountains. They addicted⁵ themselves very much to the tree, watering it in dry spells, often pruning⁶ off its branches and eliminating insect pests for it. Thanks to the brothers’ painstaking⁷ work, the tree was in full blossom in spring and laden⁸ with big peach in summer.The peach, sweet and succulent, was reputed as the immortality¹⁰ peach and its eaters, some say, would be free from disasters and diseases, live to a ripe old age or even become immortals¹¹. A prince, known as Wild Prince, lived at the same time on the Wild Ox Ridge¹² of the same mountains. He was insatiably avaricious¹³ and rode roughshod over the common locals by dint¹⁴ of his power. Having learned of the magical peach, he commanded several hundred soldiers to fight for it from Shen Tu and Yu Lei. Just through a couple of rounds, the prince and his gang were defeated and fled helter-skelter to the Wild Ox Ridge. Covetous¹⁵ of the peach, he devised an evil scheme. One night he led to the house of the brothers several hundred soldiers disguised as ghosts and monsters, intending to scare the brothers into presenting the magical fruit. Utterly¹⁶ undaunted, the brothers charged at the enemy, with Shen Tu ahead holding a peach tree branch and Yu Lei behind grasping a coil of coir rope. It was so strange that the masked soldiers collapsed¹⁷, helplessly allowing themselves to be caught, the moment they touched the branch. Shen Tu did catching¹⁸ ahead while Yu Lei trussed the caught behind. Before long, they subdued¹⁹ all the soldiers. The incident made people think that peachwood was immortal⁹ and able to exorcise spirits and ward²⁰ off evils. Hence later on New Year’s Eve, every household hung on two doorposts two peachwood strips, one on each side, respectively bearing the pictures of Shen Tu and Yu Lei.

Such strips were anciently referred to as peachwood charms. On the next New Year’s Eve, the old strips were to be replaced with new ones. Hence the verses by the winter Wang Anshi ( 1021-1086 ) of the Northern Song Dynasty: “To every home the sun imparts its brighter rays. Old peachwood charms, renewed, against evil shall insure.” In the Five-dynasty period ( 907-960 ), people began to inscribe²¹ on peachwood strips some auspicious²² verses conveying their good wishes. Meng Chang, the King of the Kingdom of Later Shu of the Five-dynasty period, inscribed²³ on two peachwood strips the vcrses, “New Year sees lingering jubilation, Joyous²⁴ festival ushers²⁵ in a long spring.” Historical records show that the inscription²⁶ is the first of its kind as well as the first recorded Spring Festival couplet. In the Song Dynasty ( 960- 1279 ), pasting Spring Festival couplets grew into a popular folk custom. The Ming Dynasty ( 1384-1644) saw a greater popularity of the custom. This was partly owed to Zhu Yuanzhang ( 1328-1398 ), the Ming Dynasty Emperor Taizu who attached importance to the couplet. Born in a peasant’s family and almost, Zhu loved the Spring Festival couplet very much. One year one on an incognito²⁷ inspection²⁸ tour, he was puzzled about the absence of Spring Festival couplets on the doorposts of a butcher’s house since the New Year was drawing near. It turned out that the butcher could not read and write. So the emperor immediately wrote for him a couplet, which read, “Open up a way out with two hands, Cut off the roots of trouble with a single blow.” Also in the Ming Dynasty, the Spring Festival couplet got its present name and began to be written on red paper to heighten the joyous festive²⁹ air. Some couples of the kind give expression to the writer’s aspirations³⁰, and others point out ills of times and offer salutary advice.

All, whatever contents, are marked by jubilation, auspiciousness³¹, exquisiteness³², succinctness³³ and instructiveness. Take for instance. Often seen on the doorposts of a peasant’s house is the couplet, “Joyful³⁴ to seeone thousand bushes of spring flowers, Beaming to drink one cup of wine of a good year,” which describes well the countryside’s prosperity and the peasant’s joy; usually pasted on the doorposts of a barber’s shop is usually the couplet, “A hair renders one younger looks, A shave makes one radiant with happiness,” which reads very witty³⁵ and humorous.