Chun lian are couplets posted on gates during the Spring Festival. These originated from the “peach-wood charms” in the ancient times, which were meant to send off the old and usher in the new. These charms were tiny rectangular plates and made of peach-wood. In the Song Dynasty, paper came to be used instead of wood plates for writing spring couplets; and in the Ming Dynasty, encouraged by Emperor Taizu, spring couplets came to be greatly vogue. On one New Year after he made Nanjing as his capital, Taizu issued an imperial decree requiring all officials, scholars and common people to paste a pair of couplets on their gates. As he traveled around, he was pleased to see these colorful spring couplets.

The time-honored practice of pasting spring couplets is still being followed to this day. However, the current couplets are quite different from those of the past as far as their meaning is concerned. They now either describe the flourishing national progress or wonderful sights of the land. They also give expression to people’s wishes for a still better future.

This article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.