the spring festival couplet is to be pasted on doorposts or hall pillars, hence also known as the doorpost scroll. it consists of two vertical lines and one horizontal line, and all the lines convey the idea of good luck or jubilation, constituting a unique form in the chinese literature.
the chinese festival couplet was born of the peachwood charm. a legendary story has it that long long ago, two brothers named shen tu and yu lei lived in a stone house near a big lush peach tree in the dushoumountains. they addicted themselves very much to the tree, watering it in dry spells, often pruning off its branches and eliminating insect pests for it. thanks to the brothers’ painstaking work, the tree was in full blossom in spring and laden with big peach in summer.the peach, sweet and succulent, was reputed as the immortality peach and its eaters, some say, would be free from disasters and diseases, live to a ripe old age or even become immortals. a prince, known as wild prince, lived at the same time on the wild ox ridge of the same mountains. he was insatiably avaricious and rode roughshod over the common locals by dint of his power. having learned of the magical peach, he commanded several hundred soldiers to fight for it from shen tu and yu lei. just through a couple of rounds, the prince and his gang were defeated and fled helter-skelter to the wild ox ridge. covetous of the peach, he devised an evil scheme. one night he led to the house of the brothers several hundred soldiers disguised as ghosts and monsters, intending to scare the brothers into presenting the magical fruit. utterly undaunted, the brothers charged at the enemy, with shen tu ahead holding a peach tree branch and yu lei behind grasping a coil of coir rope. it was so strange that the masked soldiers collapsed, helplessly allowing themselves to be caught, the moment they touched the branch. shen tu did catching ahead while yu lei trussed the caught behind. before long, they subdued all the soldiers. the incident made people think that peachwood was immortal and able to exorcise spirits and ward off evils. hence later on new year’s eve, every household hung on two doorposts two peachwood strips, one on each side, respectively bearing the pictures of shen tu and yu lei.
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