Chapter 57: Writing Spring Festival Couplets

Xue Dongting frowned. “How could Old Zhang just throw them away? I’m certainly going to tell Sister Xu about this!”

Song Yuming was still smiling, but to himself he thought, “Old Zhang, ah, I’m gonna have to let you take the heat on this one. It’s no big deal, I’ve done the same for you many a time and accepted a lot of blame in front of your wife!”

Xue Dongting was still indignant. She pointed at the outer robe he wore. “That’s Old Zhang’s right? Don’t return it!”

Song Yuming looked at his little wife and nodded, all serious. “I won’t return it and I’ll give him what for!” He turned and went to the wardrobe and got the red paper they had bought. “It’s only three days till New Year’s Eve, let’s write Spring Festival couplets.”

Xue Dongting looked at the red paper and quit arguing about the clothes. “Let’s think about what we should write.”

“We need three couplets, one for the courtyard gates, one for the main hall doors, and another for the kitchen. I’ll think of the ones for the courtyard gate and the kitchen, you come up with one for the main hall doors? Sound good?”

Xue Dongting nodded and pondered and soon had an idea. “For the main hall, let’s write ‘Two zithers in harmony, maybe their spring be fruitful; Man and heaven in harmony makes the moon full’, and for the horizontal scroll we can write ‘Forever of One Mind.’”

Song Yuming paused, then laughed. “Alright, that’s a good one.”

“We just got married, so it’s suitable. If you don’t like it we can change to something else.”

“As long as you come up with it, I will like it.”

Xue Dongting felt all warm and fuzzy inside when he said that. She asked softly, “Do you have brush and ink?”

“There’s a big brush in the drawer by the bed, and there should be an ink stick in the cabinet. I’ll go check.”

“Okay, I’ll clean off the table and cut the paper.”

They were in ho hurry, leisurely cutting the paper and rubbing the ink, getting everything ready. Song Yuming dipped the big brush full of ink and handed it to Xue Dongting. “You write the one for the main hall doors.”

She was not confident in her calligraphy skills and quickly pushed the brush away. “I’m not writing it… My calligraphy is not good.”

Song Yuming thought his wife was just being modest. “It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s written by you.”

She tried all she could to resist, but in the end she had to take up the big brush and did the best she could to write the couplet she had thought of onto the vermilion paper.

Song Yuming looked at what she had written and was silent for some time. Xue Dongting asked diffidently, “Is it bad?”

Song Yuming pulled a long face and tried not to laugh. “It’s not bad. It will be good to paste beside the bedroom door… It’ll ward off evil spirits.”

The first half sounded good to Xue Dongting’s ears, but she lost it at the last part. “I said I didn’t want to write it but you made me so I did, and you still hate it! I’m ignoring you, you do it by yourself.”

Song Yuming quickly stepped in to block his wife, laughing. “I don’t hate it! I just can’t believe these characters were written by you. They have a certain… uh… lovable purity to them. It’s quite good, really good!”

Xue Dongting hmphed. Of course she knew what he was getting at. She side-eyes him. “You write one, I want to see how good your writing is!”

He took the proffered brush and spread out a new sheet of red paper, drew up his sleeve, and his brush moved in vigorous strokes. He wrote “Three months of spring, add to the splendor; the rivers and mountains will be magnificent all year”. Each character was strong and distinct, full of unaffected vitality. You could see the vigor with which he wrote them.

Xue Dongting scrutinized it, and though she had to admire it, she acted all serious when she said, “No good no good, what is this! This doesn’t even look like a Spring Festival couplet!”