Spring Couplet - Shunren

One of the Chinese New Year's events. A type of gate couplet that is pasted on the door of a gate, it is auspicious couplets written on red paper. Gate couplets are posted for all celebratory occasions such as housewarmings, births, and weddings, but those for the New Year are specially named spring couplets. It is thought to have evolved from the custom of placing peach talismans on gates on New Year's Day, depicting the two gods Shinto and Utsurai on a sign made from a peach tree to ward off demons. There are simple ones such as "Shinto and Utsurai" and sentences such as "A single sound of firecrackers drives away the old, the peach talisman renews ten thousand households" and "The plum calyx begins to convey color, and in the stillness of the moment, the peach talisman is new and spring comes."

[Yoshiyuki Tadokoro]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の新年の行事の一つ。門の戸に貼付(ちょうふ)する門聯の一種で、紅紙に吉祥(きちじょう)を表す対句を書いたもの。門聯は新居祝いや出産、結婚など祝い事のすべての慶事に張り出されるが、新年に際してのそれは、とくに区別されて春聯の名でよばれる。鬼を防ぐために、桃の木でつくった札に、神荼(しんと)と欝塁(うつらい)の2神を描いて、元日の門に立てた桃符の風習が転じたものと考えられる。「神荼・欝塁」という簡単なものから、「爆竹一声除旧、桃符万戸更新」「貞下起元梅萼先伝信色、静中含動桃符新換春来」などの文章がある。

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