When we put up Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, why do we stick the word "Fu" upside down? What is the origin
Introduction: Posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival has become a very common but important Spring Festival custom. The word "Fu" on Spring Festival couplets is always pasted upside down. Do you know why? Is there any historical reason why the word "Fu" is pasted upside down on Spring Festival couplets? Now, let’s follow the editor to take a look. New year, new atmosphere, there are countless topics about the Spring Festival. If you want to know more about the Lunar New Year, please continue to pay attention to Mr. Shui Mo’s exclusive Spring Festival special articles for you!When we paste the character “Fu” during the Spring Festival, why should we paste it upside down?In order to more fully reflect people's wishes, yearning and wishes for future life, people simply paste the word "Fu" upside down to represent "happiness has arrived" and "good fortune has arrived". The custom of pasting the character "Fu" upside down could not be earlier than the early Ming Dynasty. There are three interesting legends about the origin of pasting the character "Fu" upside down.1. The first one is the Prince Gong Mansion theory.The first one is the Prince Gong Mansion theory. On the eve of the Spring Festival during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, the butler of Prince Gong's mansion wrote several huge "Fu" characters to please his master, and had them pasted on the storeroom and the gate of the mansion. One family, being illiterate, pasted the character "Fu" on their door upside down. For this reason, Prince Gong's wife was very angry and wanted to punish him with a whip. Fortunately, the butler was a good eloquent person. He was afraid that the wife would blame him and implicate him, so he knelt down hurriedly and stated: "I often hear people say that Prince Gong is old and blessed with great fortune. Now the great fortune has really come, which is a good sign." When Prince Gong's wife heard this, her anger turned into joy. She thought to herself: "No wonder passers-by say that Prince Gong is blessed. Saying auspicious words a thousand times will make you a fortune. Ordinary servants really can't think of this trick!" Then she rewarded the butler and the servants with 50 taels of silver each. Later, the custom of pasting the word "Fu" upside down spread from the mansions of high-ranking officials to ordinary people in the streets and alleys. After pasting the word "Fu", people would hope that passers-by or naughty children would say "Fu is upside down! Fu is upside down!" for good luck.2. The second theory was stated by Empress Dowager Cixi.The second one was said by Empress Dowager Cixi. There has always been a custom in ancient China that "on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, every family writes big characters." On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month of a certain year in the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the Hanlin Academy to write some couplets to celebrate the Spring Festival. These Hanlin scholars put in all their efforts and used beautiful words, and after finishing their writing, they respectfully sent it to the Empress Dowager for her review. The Queen Mother was very unhappy when she saw that there was not even the character "Fu" (meaning "Fu") in the letter. When the Hanlin scholars saw that the Empress Dowager was angry, they were so scared that they knelt on the ground and said, "Please teach me, Empress Dowager." The Empress Dowager said, "Go and write a few "Fu" characters." The Hanlin scholars hurried back and wrote a bunch of "Fu" characters and presented them to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager picked out a few and asked the Chief Eunuch Li Lianying to take the eunuchs to post them everywhere in the palace.Unexpectedly, it caused another disturbance. One eunuch was illiterate and pasted the label with the character "Fu" upside down. No one noticed that night. The next day, the Empress Dowager came out to admire the couplet and the character "Fu". She happened to see it and was about to get angry, but Li Lianying, who was quick-witted, hurried forward and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down. I pasted it upside down on purpose. This character 'Fu' is pasted upside down, which means 'Fu' is upside down. If Fu is here, isn't it good luck?" After hearing this, Cixi turned her anger into joy. Not only did she not punish the eunuch, she also rewarded him with a few taels of silver. Later this custom spread to the people and became a custom. 3. The third theory is that of Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma.The third theory is that of Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma. This statement is most likely derived from the legend of the origin of pasting the character "Fu". After Emperor 朱元璋 (Zhu Yuanzhang), a founder of Ming dynasty, once captured Nanjing, he ordered his people to secretly paste the character "福" on the doors of families who had once supported and helped him. Then the next day, he would kill those families without the character "福" on their doors as colluding with the Yuan invaders. When the kind-hearted Queen Ma learned of this, in order to avoid this disaster, she ordered every household in the city to paste a "Fu" character on their doors overnight. Everyone followed the instruction, but one family was illiterate and pasted the label with the word "Fu" upside down.The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the imperial guards to execute all the families who did not post the word "Fu". Unexpectedly, the leader of the Imperial Guards reported back soon, and every household in the city had posted the word "Fu" on their doors. Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he didn't know what to do. Then the leader of the Imperial Guards said that a family had pasted the word "Fu" upside down on their door. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he heard this, and immediately ordered the Imperial Guards to kill the entire family without leaving a single one alive. When Empress Ma saw that things were not going well, she hurriedly said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "That family knew you were coming today, so they deliberately pasted the word 'Fu' upside down. Doesn't this mean 'Fu has arrived'? " Zhu Yuanzhang thought it made sense and gave up the idea of killing, thus avoiding a catastrophe. From then on people began to paste the word "Fu" upside down, one to pray for good luck, and the other to commemorate Queen Ma. Summary: Through the above article, we know three legends about pasting the word "Fu" in Spring Festival couplets upside down. Which one do you prefer? I hope you will like this content. I wish you all good fortune and prosperity in the new year! |
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