李怡，1936年生，香港知名時事評論家、作家。1970年曾創辦雜誌《七十年代》，1984年更名《九十年代》，直至1998年停刊。後在《蘋果日報》撰寫專欄，筆耕不輟半世紀。著有文集《放逐》、《思緒》、《對應》等十數本。正在Matters連載首部自傳《失敗者回憶錄》：「我一生所主張所推動的事情，社會總是向相反趨向發展，無論是閱讀，獨立思考或民主自由都如是。這就是我所指的失敗的人生。」

Memoirs of a Loser 172: Don't Understand, Don't Understand, Don't Understand

Jul 23, 2022

It can take care of the neatness of the confrontation, but it can't take care of the flatness of the voice and the rhythm.

The couplet in Chinese originates from the antiquated couplet style that appeared long ago in ancient Chinese, which is unique to the structure of Chinese characters. Ancient poetry often embeds dual sentences. Liang Qichao said that after the Song Dynasty, couplets appeared alone in the society and became the ingenious decorations in places of interest or in front of homes. Going to a place, seeing couplets, will increase travel. I like couplets because they are delicate, ingenious, and correspond to the thoughts and moods contained in the sentences.

The most thought-provoking thing in the couplet is undoubtedly the "absolute". For example, the "Smoke Locked Pond Willow" quoted above, since Chen Zisheng wrote it in the late Ming Dynasty, has been tried by countless people for hundreds of years. Many people have come to the conclusion that the five characters contain the "five elements" of gold, wood, water, fire, and soil. But being right doesn't mean being right. Liang Yusheng once wrote the article "Searching for the Roots of "Smoke Locked Pond Willow", mentioning that Chen Zisheng himself also tried to couplet couplets to several poems. Liang believes that the "lights hanging on the brocade on the threshold", the artistic conception of covering the waves with lights, is the best match.

He also mentioned that a Hong Kong native, Luo Guangbin, used "Hong Kong City Teppanyaki" to confront "Smoke Lock Pond Willow", which not only conforms to the five elements, but also has Hong Kong characteristics and humor.

Some netizens said that I once talked about the second couplet of "Wonderful Man, Ni's Girl" on the radio program, and one of them was: "Those who believe in the word, people with different surnames". This second couplet was also written by Luo Guangbin, and was included in Liang Yusheng's book "Famous Couplets".

Readers have written a lot of this absolute second line. Among them, "Those who understand words, all Buddhas and my heart" are not only neat, but also detached in artistic conception.

There are also many readers who have written the second couplet of "Food Bags, Food and Satisfaction", and the more preferable ones are "the host and the host live" and "clothing and strong clothing".

"Bing Bing Bing Shui Bing" has the following couplets: "Avalanche Snow Mountain Snow", "Eat Good Food", "Wolf than Wolf Dog Wolf" and "Genuine Goods", I think they are all good.

Writer Kong Jiesheng found a century absolute from mainland netizens, and he has passed almost all the masters. This definitely contains indecent words, the joint is: "Kim Il Sung Jong Il, Ri Cheng Kim Jong Il". "Sun" means "cock" in northern dialect. (Some people in mainland China once called the "People's Daily" the "Daily People's Daily".) This first link is really clever. However, there is still someone who said, "Marshall only rests, and Marshall rests." Although the ingenuity and meaning cannot be compared with the Shanglian, it is considered rare.

I have written a lot of couplets in my column, and one of my friends, You Wenjun, wrote a couplet, which is very interesting: "My relatives don't see the new China, and my beloved only has the old China; the simplified version makes ghosts and gods cry."

Afterwards, he wrote the second couplet by himself: "If the ritual is lost, the Qudou sinks into the nine cauldrons, and the earth, spirit and fire are red and dry in the Shenzhou; the righteousness is blocked, and the heaven and the earth weep."

This is Chinese characters who love Chinese characters crying simplified characters. The simplified word "kiss" has no "see" next to it, and the word "love" has no "heart". Qu and Dou are missing from the word ceremony, and Qu Dou becomes the word "豊", which is an ancient salute. Jiuding is an utensil used in ancient times to worship the ancestors of heaven and earth, symbolizing Kyushu. After Qin unified the world, it was annihilated. "Spirit" is written as "Spirit", and the omens are "scarlet fire and drought in Shenzhou".

There are also masters who match the next couplet:

"Learning in ancient Chinese without roots, the door opens and changes into today's Chinese characters; when the wind blows, flowers and plants wither." (The word "ye" in simplified Chinese has no roots, and the door of the word "kai" is gone.

The next couplet of the other pair is:

"Boneless the body, the essence is lost, the defense of the country's soul is lost; the spiritual energy is damaged, and the universe is in chaos." "dry".)

Some people think that traditional characters are normal characters and simplified characters are residual characters. Pushing the residual body and abandoning the normal body, "a word becomes a prophecy", will it lead to "righteousness congestion, heaven and earth weeping", "reiki loss, heaven and earth chaos"?

Reader Xiangjiang Diao Weng put forward a couplet and asked for the second couplet, which is also very interesting:

"Huang Zunxian, the owner of Renjinglu, is named Zunxian, realizes Zunxian, dreams of Zunxian, and the descendants of Yan and Huang all obey the constitution, and the human realm is very peaceful."

Huang Zunxian (1848-1905) was a poet in the late Qing Dynasty, with the courtesy name Gongdu and the nickname of the owner of Renjinglu.

Xiangjiang Diao Weng should have felt something in his heart for a long time before he made his wish to "comply with the constitution". Because the most common thing for the descendants of Yan and Huang is that "everyone violates the constitution". Abiding by the constitution means the rule of law, and China can never be separated from the rule of man. The rule of man extends to Hong Kong after the transfer of sovereignty, so "human conditions are not very peaceful".

The metaphor is good, but it is very tricky. A master of couplets said: You can take care of the neatness of the confrontation, but you can't take care of the flatness and rhythm of the voice, and you can take care of the fit of the names, but you can't take care of the historical facts.

However, there are quite a few people in Hong Kong who are right. I prefer the second link signed by Berson:

"The elders of Lao Xue An have a view on Lu Wu, a view on writing, a view on thinking, a view on learning, and a view on all Chinese children. Lao Xue is prosperous."

Lu Wuguan is the name of Song Dynasty poet Lu You. The meaning of "wuguan", Bo Senjun explained: "It can be interpreted as devoted to the study of philosophical truth. It can also be interpreted as: engaged in the study of meticulous thinking. The old saying goes: rough thinking is called enlightenment, and careful thinking is called observation. It is also called. Guan is a Taoist temple. Therefore, Wu Guan can also be interpreted as: dedicated to the old Taoism.”

The story of the Alliance is endless. This is an interesting page in my writing career, so let's stop there.

Finally, a quote about the absolute upper link:

"Think absolutes, sing absolutes, absolute absolutes, absolute absolutes."

The last two "absolutes" do not mean the same thing. One refers to the "absolutes" in the couplet, and the other refers to the absolutes we usually talk about.

Someone proposed the next couplet: "On the incomprehensible, the speech is incomprehensible, the incomprehension is incomprehensible, the incomprehension is incomprehensible."

I remember when the SAR government revised the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance in 2019, all Hong Kong citizens "didn't understand", the young, the old, the knowledgeable, the ignorant, the legal profession, the media, housewives, foreign dignitaries, everyone did not understand , only the government's "sending trio" (the Chief Executive, the Secretary for Justice, and the Secretary for Security) said they understood. They say they understand without telling any group how they understand. Therefore, it should be the next couplet of this couplet.

However, there are a lot of people in this world who are puzzled.