甲骨文春联英文版——Spring Festival Couplets in Oracle-bone Inscriptions

原创香港树仁大学文耕学堂 2024年02月09日 06:00

编者按：文耕学堂赵老师书写并制作了龙年特色礼物——甲骨文春联。作为甲骨文的普及工作之一，受到了很多关注中国文化的海内外朋友们的关注和支持。其中香港树仁大学的陆国权中华文化传承研究基金将该文翻译成英文，方便海外华人理解和传播。现将英文版展示如下。

Spring Festival Couplets in Oracle-bone Inscriptions

The Origin of Spring Festival Couplets

Spring Festival couplets (春聯, Chunlian) are one of the traditional customs in China, which originated from peach wood charms to drive away evil spirits. Legend has it that in ancient times, there was an extremely fierce monster that often came out to harm the people, and everyone suffered deeply from it. But there was no way to subdue it. Later, two immortals, Shentu (神荼) and Yulei (郁壘), who specialized in eliminating demons, made the monster subdued using peach wood charms and got rid of the harm for the people.

The people showed their gratitude and admiration to the two immortals. In order to pray for permanent peace, some of them got a sudden idea and hung peach wood charms carved with the names of the two immortals on their doors, so that no monsters dared to come forward. Later on, everyone copied this and hung charms on their own doors.

Peach wood charms continued to develop into two rectangular peach wood boards hanging on both sides of the gate, measuring six inches (20cm) in length and three inches (10cm) in width. Then, in the Five Dynasties (907-960) and Ten States (902-979) period, after several rounds of evolution, peach wood charms developed into Spring Festival couplets. After the popularity of paper, the peach wood were finally replaced with red paper.

It is the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋，1328-1398) of the Ming Dynasty that popularized Spring Festival couplets in a real sense. Recorded in A Miscellany of Zanyun Tower (《簪雲樓雜說》, Zanyunlou Zashuo) by Chen Shanggu (陳尚古，unknown year of birth and death) of the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), Zhu Yuanzhang had a great fondness for Spring Festival couplets. Once, as the New Year approached, he had a sudden idea and ordered a pair of Spring Festival couplets to be pasted on each door for the festive atmosphere. From then on, Spring Festival couplets have been a must for thousands of millions of households.

The Meanings of Spring Festival Couplets

Spring Festival couplets bear the initial intention of pursuing good luck and driving the evil, and later hoping for a better tomorrow, all of these express the Chinese people’s yearning for a better life. People are very aware of various obstacles and difficulties in real life, so the meaning of life lies in overcoming the obstacles and difficulties through our own efforts. Therefore, we must muster our spirit and move forward with all our might for the future of ourselves, our families, and our nation. When the new year approaches, we must remain steadfast in our goals and not be afraid of difficulties. So we place our beautiful aspirations in the Spring Festival couplets.

Chinese people believe that tomorrow will be better than today since we put in effort today and we do not yield to difficulties. At the beginning, we use peach wood charms to avoid danger, but later we use words of charms to convey our message. It can be seen that words must carry certain powers. During the Chinese New Year, almost every household will paste Spring Festival couplets with all the beautiful words, hoping for successful career, harmonious family, and great fortune.

The Basic Rules of Spring Festival Couplets

Firstly, the position of the first and second lines of the couplets. Facing the couplet, the first line comes on the right-hand side and the second line on the left.

Secondly, the tonal patterns of the couplets. The last character in the first line is in oblique tones (e.g. the falling tone), while the last character in the second line is in level tones (e.g. the rising tone). Note: In ancient phonetics, the character “fu” (福, the most common word meaning “good fortune” or “happiness”) has an oblique tone.

Thirdly, the number of characters in the couplets. In general, odd numbers are preferred because odd numbers are considered as positive numbers in Chinese culture. For example, the following Spring Festival couplet written in oracle-bone inscriptions has seven characters in each line. And there are other couplets with nine or eleven characters.

The First Line: The New Year of Jiachen brings good fortune and happiness.

(上聯：甲辰新春人多福)

The Second Line: The Year of the Dragon introduces literary talents and prosperity.

(下聯：龍年文興財入門)

The Horizontal Scroll to match the couplet: Harmony and Good Fortune.

(橫批：家和事吉)

Here is the explanation. The coming lunar new year is the Year of the Dragon and the Year of Jiachen in traditional Chinese chronology. The Chinese New Year marks the beginning of spring, the beginning of a new year. With many blessings, we hope that we can achieve great wealth, prosperity and happiness in the Year of the Dragon. The “literary talents” (文) in the second line represent culture, characters, and civilization. According to the Book of Changes (《周易》), the Year of the Dragon is suitable for the development of cultural undertakings. Therefore, it is hoped that more friends will be engaged in cultural and educational undertakings next year to truly achieve financial prosperity. In Chinese culture, people value both virtues and talents. It is nothing wrong for people to make money, but it is more important to have a balance of virtues and talents. The cultural and educational undertakings aim to improve one’s virtues, and as one’s virtues improve, he will naturally invite more financial opportunities. The horizontal scroll “Harmony and Good Fortune” bears the hope that everyone in the family is healthy for the first place, and secondly fortunate for their work and career. This is the meaning of the scroll of the couplets.

附：陆国权中华文化传承研究基金官方网站正式启动助中华文化传承

「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金」新一年迎来里程碑。1月6日于研究院综合大楼赛马会多媒体製作中心举行「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金官方网站」启用典礼。典礼当日场面盛大，出席的主礼嘉宾包括香港树仁大学校董会委员兼爱讯集团主席陆国权先生、仁大首席副校长孙天伦教授、学术副校长陈蒨教授、行政副校长张少强教授、协理学术副校长（评审及学科发展）许耀峰博士、香港中文大学医学院名誉教授原丈人大使，以及爱讯集团的高层人士。

「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金官方网站」启用典礼于1月6日圆满举行。

爱讯集团在2021年下旬，向香港树仁大学捐赠300万元，透过「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金」，展开一系列有关中华文化的研究，为树仁大学的学术研究发展带来重要契机。多位仁大及外界学者展开一系列有关中华文化的研究，包括中华传统美食、节日、艺术、建筑、传统美德、诸子百家论说及海外华人的奋斗史。基金旨在透过官方网站上的学术研究，将中华文化活化起来，并带动更多全球华人弘扬中华文化。

首席副校长孙天伦教授在致词时表示，感谢陆国权先生慷慨捐赠300万元予香港树仁大学开展文化遗产的研究，又对陈蒨教授和许耀峰博士为项目提供原始结构，以及中文系与历史系的教职员为项目贡献知识与人脉表示致意。孙天伦教授续指，是次「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金」网站启动属研究的首项成果，期望日后通过认真的学术研究收集数据，用于日后在大湾区开设的智慧文化城。

首席副校长孙天伦教授致词。

「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金」创办人陆国权先生在官方网站启用典礼上播放的专访片段，分享资助仁大研究项目的由来。他续指，世界很多事情已电子化，担心中华传统文化会被淡化。「我希望透过大学研究项目，有根有据地理顺真正的中华文化，并希望设立『智慧文化城』，利用高科技把传统中华文化传播全世界。」

身为马来西亚华侨的陆国权先生在致词时强调「根」的重要性。「我们的研究项目包括宗谱研究，透过使用靠高科技运作的搜索引擎，配合大数据分析，协助使用者寻根，让全球华侨有机会发掘和重拾自身宗族的历史。」

树仁大学校董会委员兼爱讯集团主席陆国权先生。

「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金官方网站」讲究华人文化的传承，设有七大主题，包括文化馆、诸子百家、侨民点滴、薪火相传、学术研究、视像图书馆和文化活动。每个主题中都有学者的研究与分享，藉此传承不同方面的中华文化。「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金」资深经理黄炜陶女士表示，网站未来将提供寻根服务，期望在大数据分析及高端搜索引擎的协助下，令离开家园多年的海外华人再次寻根。

「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金」资深经理黄炜陶女士介绍「陆国权中华文化传承研究基金官方网站」。