Duilian (poetry)

In Chinese poetry, a duilian (simplified Chinese: 对联; traditional Chinese: 對たい聯れん; pinyin: ) is a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules (see below). Outside of poems, they are usually seen on the sides of doors leading to people's homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior. Although often called Chinese couplet or antithetical couplet, they can better be described as a written form of counterpoint. The two lines have a one-to-one correspondence in their metrical length, and each pair of characters must have certain corresponding properties. A duilian is ideally profound yet concise, using one character per word in the style of Classical Chinese. A special, widely-seen type of duilian is the chunlian (simplified Chinese: 春はる联; traditional Chinese: 春はる聯れん; pinyin: chūnlián), used as a New Year's decoration that expresses happiness and hopeful thoughts for the coming year.

Duilian
Pillar duilian outside the Nantian Temple (瓦かわら硐南天なんてん廟びょう) in Penghu, reading the eulogy of Guan Yu, to whom the temple is devoted.
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	對たい聯れん
Simplified Chinese	对联
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin duìlián Bopomofo ㄉㄨㄟˋ   ㄌㄧㄢˊ Wade–Giles tui4 lien2 IPA [twêɪljɛ̌n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Deui lyún Jyutping Deoi3 lyun2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tùi-liân Tâi-lô Tuì-liân
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Đối liên Câu đối
Chữ Hán	對たい聯れん
Chữ Nôm	句く對たい
Japanese name
Kanji	対たい聯れん
Hiragana	ついれん
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Tsuiren

Requirements

A duilian must adhere to the following rules:

1. Both lines must have the same number of Chinese characters.
2. The lexical category of each character must be the same as its corresponding character.
3. The tone pattern of one line must be the inverse of the other. This generally means if one character is of the level (平ひらた) tone, its corresponding character on the other line must be of an oblique (仄) tone.
4. The last character of the first line should be of an oblique tone, which forces the last character of the second line to be of a level tone.
5. The meanings of the two lines must be related, with each pair of corresponding characters having related meanings too.

Example

Example of a duilian:

書しょ山やま有路ありじ勤つとむ爲ため徑みち

Tone pattern: level-level-oblique-oblique-level-level-oblique (平ひら平仄ひょうそく仄平平仄ひょうそく)

Pinyin: shū shān yǒu lù qín wéi jìng

Translation: The mountain of books has one way and hard work serves as the path

學海がっかい無涯むがい苦く作さく舟ふね

Tone pattern: oblique-oblique-level-level-oblique-oblique-level (仄仄平ひら平仄ひょうそく仄平)

Pinyin: xué hǎi wú yá kǔ zuò zhōu

Translation: The sea of learning has no end and effort makes the boat

	Bottom	Top
knowledge	學がく	書しょ	book
sea	海うみ	山やま	mountain
have not	無む	有ゆう	have
border	涯	路みち	way
painstaking	苦く	勤つとむ	diligence
makes	作さく	爲ため	is
boat	舟ふね	徑みち	path

History and usage

Originating during the Five Dynasties, and flourishing during the Ming and Qing dynasties in particular, duilians have a history of more than a thousand years and remain an enduring aspect of Chinese culture.

Often, duilians are written on red paper and stuck on walls. Sometimes, they are carved onto plaques of wood for a more permanent display.

Dueling duilians are a popular pastime with Chinese speakers, a game of verbal and intellectual dexterity, wit, and speed which shares some parallels with the dozens.

See also

• Couplet
• Fai chun

Gallery

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  Arabic duilian outside Tianshui temple
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  Duilian written by a famous poet at Daguan Park
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  Manuscripts in the Yunnan Nationalities Museum, Nakhi weather lore in Dongba symbols

External links

• China the beautiful web site on duilian and chunlian
• Hubert Delahaye, "The duilian, parallel and converging sentences. A few sociological aspects", Études chinoises, vol. XXI, n° 1-2, Spring-Fall 2002 (in French with English abstract)