Legend has it that the early Ming emperor Chu Yuan-chang would sometimes make rounds among the people before New Year's. One time he came across the house of a butcher that did not have any New Year's scrolls on its door. In a sudden rush of poetic inspiration, he wrote, "The power of life and death rests in his hands; with one stroke of the knife, hatreds and enmities are extinguished," and bestowed the scroll upon the butcher. The butcher immediately became famous throughout the capital, and his business was excellent from that time forward.
The early Republic-era figure Wu Chih-huei wrote a scroll couplet one New Year's during the War of Resistance Against Japan for a barbershop he frequently patronized. The scroll said, "My two fists can strike the heroes of the land, yet none dare resist; this knife has shaven the great, and all have bowed their heads before it."
This couplet not only puts into a few words the barber's shaving and massage skills, but does so in a clever, stately poetic counterpoint of sound and meaning. The words are still admired to this day.
A few years ago a newspaper sponsored an activity where local officials wrote New Year's scrolls for hometown elders. Everyone tried their hardest since they wanted to present a good image of their hometowns. For example, the Penghu county magistrate, hoping for a flourishing tourism industry, wrote "These islands overflow with scenic panoramas, but most divine of all is Hsi Ying." The Chia-Yi county magistrate took Chia-Yi county place names and worked them into the couplet: "Playful winds gust about the foot of Ali Mountain; the Putai seashore basks in congenial charm."
From Peachwood Charms to New Year's Scrolls: Ever since ancient times, everybody from high officials to lowly peddlers has used these scrolls to display their literary proficiency or express their yearnings for the future. The joyous red-scribed scrolls, their contents ranging across the spectrum of hopes and propitious wishes, never fail to get the spring season off to a rousing start. Lin Ming-te, professor of Chinese at Fu Jen Catholic University, is an expert in Chinese antithetical couplets, of which those appearing on New Year's scrolls are just one variety. He points out that New Year's scrolls evolved from the ancient peachwood charms against evil.
It is recorded in the ancient book Huai Nan Tzu that "Yi [the legendary archer] died by a peach staff." The ancients reasoned that if a peachwood staff could kill even someone so violent and brutal as Yi, then ghosts would also be afraid of the wood. It thus became a folk custom to hang peach tree sticks over the household door to fool ghosts.
It was commonly held by the ancients that two gods, Shen-ch'a and Yu-ku, dwelt in a certain mountain peach grove, where they ate nothing but monsters and demons. People carved their imagined likenesses into peachwood to hang over their doors to secure the peace of the home. Thus developed the peachwood charm.
In the Lun Heng by the Han dynasty writer Wang Ch'ung, it is recorded: "Peachwood likenesses are placed on household entrances." It is thus evident that as early as the Han dynasty, peachwood charms were already being hung up.
These charms gradually became simplified over the years to the point where a square piece of red paper could be used to paint a peach shape upon which the names of Shen-ch'a and Yu-ku could be written. Then starting with the T'ang dynasty, propitious phrases were written on the red paper, which learned men required to be in phonically matched couplets. In this way, the gradual transformation from peachwood charms to New Year's scrolls came about.
Tradition has it that the earliest New Year's scroll was written during the Five Dynasties by the well-known latter Shu monarch Meng Ch'ang. One year, at the time of the spring festival, he affixed to his royal bedroom door a pair of peachwood charms which said, "May the New Year bring joy and plenty; may there be rejoicing and everlasting spring." Who could have known that the latter Shu dynasty would end the next year, only to be replaced by the "everlasting spring" proclaimed by the Sung Dynasty T'ai-tzung emperor? New Year's scrolls existed from this time forward, but because of the inauspicious occurrence related in this story, their use could not become widespread.
It wasn't until the Ming dynasty that hanging up New Year's scrolls became a popular custom. This trend certainly was not unrelated to Chu Yuan-chang's support for the practice. Full of confidence after unifying China, he set up his capital in Nanking, and, on New Year's Eve, decreed that all households, of all stations, rich or poor, must add a New Year's scroll to their doors. The Ming emperor T'ai-tsu himself liked to compose New Year's scroll couplets to present to literary and military personages, trying his best to make the content in accord with the subject's position. According to legend, his most successful effort was a scroll he wrote for an ordinary household which had a pair of sons, one of whom was a blacksmith and the other a butcher. T'ai-tsu wrote, "This house is heard far and wide; striking out once and again to be the best." Combined with the horizontal inscription, "Strike first, then ask for permission," this scroll's clever language has been applauded by Chinese for centuries.
The New Year's scroll underwent a particularly flourishing period of development during the Ch'ing dynasty, when its cousins the indoor scroll and the pillar scroll became popular. It got to the point where scholars and literati were deemed philistines if their dwellings lacked scrolls. For example, The Dream of the Red Chamber describes how Chia Cheng, in order to test the literary perspicacity of Pao-yu, required him to compose fitting couplets whenever they came to a pavilion, platform, or chamber.
Wise Words and Modest Hopes: Subject matter of New Year's scrolls generally falls into several categories. First are scrolls that extol the season at hand, usually spring, such as the couplet "The heavens are clearing for brightening vistas; the chambers fill with spring breezes and harmony." Some are more concerned with practical needs and desires, like the "Every day a pound of gold" decorating shop counters, or the "Peace among the animals" that may be affixed to a pig pen or chicken coop. Many more scrolls are emblazoned with aphorisms and other words of the wise, such as "Goodness is a jewel that flows down to one's descendants; forbearance is the way to the fortune virtue brings." Other popular scrolls expand upon practical themes of business or daily life. In a tea house, for instance, you might see "Among the blossoms imagining the poet's wine; under the bamboos reading from Lu Yu." (Lu Yu of the T'ang dynasty is recognized as the "patron saint" of Chinese tea.)
These scrolls appear in a great variety of forms: men hsin are placed on either wing of swinging double doors; k'uang-tui are affixed to the frame or wall on either side of a doorway; heng-p'i are scrolls hung horizontally over lintels; tou-fang are diamond- shaped scrolls posted within front gates; ch'un-t'iao appear on granaries, storerooms, cattle pens and chicken coops.
Improving One's Lot with Subtle Words: "For the average person struggling to eke out a living, New Year's scrolls are a perfect way to ask for blessings and create an air of festivity." Calligrapher Hsieh Tzu-chen recalls his boyhood, when he would help his father write New Year's scrolls: "My father never got anywhere in business, but his characters were beautiful. Around the close of each lunar year he would work out phrases asking for wealth and good luck. As he wrote them down, he would explain to us children what they meant as he talked about the days to come. The happiness and confidence this brought him moved us to think that maybe the New Year really would bring with it new hope."
"For the literati, writing New Year's scrolls was an ideal opportunity to show off one's literary flair and calligraphic skill; it was also a chance to reveal one's individuality and personal aspirations." Lin Ming-te also notes that New Year's scrolls can cover a huge range of topics, but that the best scrolls say something about one's family traditions and the personality of the master of head of household. Ideally these scrolls express themselves in a deliberately oblique manner, as overt statements are generally viewed as crass. For instance, some favorite phrases like "Calling all wealth; bring in the riches" or "Welcoming good fortune for all four seasons; garnering treasures from all four directions" might be looked down upon as a little too grasping. Years ago the Chinese took a much more conservative approach toward New Year's scrolls. Folk scholar Shih Tsui-feng relates that in the past all classes of people would invariably paste up scrolls asking for fortune or succor in their means livelihood. Only rarely would they ask for favor beyond their station in life.
Scholars, for instance, liked to post aphoristic phrases on either side of their main gate to provide constant, passive edification to their sons and grandsons. Scrolls of this sort became part of a child's at-home moral upbringing. A good example in this genre is the Taoist injunction "Hold to the Way in your home to find truth; act by Inaction to find truth in the world."
Lukang, Home of Personalized New Year's Scrolls: Now just another part of today's commercialized "pre-packaged" culture, New Year's scrolls are mass-produced and printed with clich?d slogans addressing the widest possible audience. Although they still convey holiday cheer, they don't bring out a household's personal charm in the same warm way.
While conducting research on New Year's couplets, Lin Ming-te recently discovered that the city of Lukang is a unique treasurehouse of New Year's scrolls, retaining the traditional style while displaying delightful innovations. Members of aristocratic and scholarly families there still enjoy teasing their brains to come up with original New Year's scrolls capturing the spirit of the household, while businessmen commission local literati to compose clever couplets befitting their particular trade. In Lukang, the purchase of pre-printed New Year's scrolls is the exception rather than the rule. On either side of the doorway of one household are the lines of the couplet, "The tongue inspires trouble--speak less idle words with your friends; study imparts wisdom--advise your children to read a few more books." The companion verse, hung above the door, reads, "An atmosphere of poetry and literature makes for virtuous children."
Hanging in a shop selling Buddhist religious articles is a couplet reading, "Buddha brings salvation to all, like the arrival of spring; prosperity graces all four seasons, thanks to auspicious karma." The companion scroll reads, "Boundless law of the Buddha, bless our humble business." In a tailor shop, a framed couplet reads "A keen golden needle and the cutting edge of style; the latest fashions in fine men's wear make a visit worth your while."
Microcosm of Society, Essential Element of Traditional Architecture: "In the past, New Year's couplets were a distillation of society at large, a reflection of the life of the times." Lin Ming-te considers the couplets' widely diverse contents a projection of the psychology of the authors and their contemporaries. Perusing the New Year's couplets of a given locality offers a shortcut to understanding the lives of its people.
Ornamental couplets are an indispensable element of traditional architecture. Lin Ming-te says emphatically, "We are always calling for a Chinese cultural renaissance, and saying that modern architecture should be imbued with a traditional aesthetic. It's a shame that one essential element is conspicuously missing from the vast majority of large public structures exhibiting a classical Chinese flavor--the traditional poetic couplet. Most homes also give little thought to the content of their New Year's couplets."
Shih Tsui-feng feels that, apart from the fortunate few who have their own homes, most modern urbanites are hard put to share their cramped living spaces with the traditional New Year's couplets, but he says, "Still, even if it's just a single character, such as 'Spring' or 'good fortune'--hung upside down--it's always nice to hang something that adds a little holiday spirit and traditional flavor to the season."
The Chinese term for "upside down" is a homonym of "to arrive," so hanging the characters upside down implies the arrival of spring or good fortune.
[Picture Caption]
Chinese people put up New Year's scrolls in supplication for wealth and happiness.
The red scrolls on red doors seem to bespeak the boundless expectations the Chinese have for the new year. . . .
(Below) Pasting the words "Gold by the millions" on a closet represents the hope that wealth may be "stuffed" into one's life.
Putting up New Year's scrolls is a venerable tradition that even the most modern of shops still adhere to. (photo taken in California by Arthur Cheng).
The character fu, pasted here on a potted plant, means "good fortune."
As the old year winds to a close, New Year's scrolls become essential "seasonal merchandise" at roadside stands. (photo taken in Canton Province by Amy Chang)
Chinese people put up New Year's scrolls in supplication for wealth and happiness.
The red scrolls on red doors seem to bespeak the boundless expectations the Chinese have for the new year. . . .
（Below） Pasting the words "Gold by the millions" on a closet represents the hope that wealth may be "stuffed" into one's life.
Putting up New Year's scrolls is a venerable tradition that even the most modern of shops still adhere to. （photo taken in California by Arthur Cheng）.
The character fu, pasted here on a potted plant, means "good fortune.".
As the old year winds to a close, New Year's scrolls become essential "seasonal merchandise" at roadside stands. （photo taken in Canton Province by Amy Chang）
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