Read the Classics Aloud

Large-print edition with pinyin annotations. Scan the QR code to listen to the audio.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿Li Weng's Rhyming Couplets is a traditional primer that has been passed down from the Qing Dynasty to the present day. It is primarily used to teach children the fundamentals of composing couplets (dui), prosody, and historical and literary allusions. The book is organized according to the thirty rhyme categories of the Pingshui rhyme system, with the number of entries varying from two to four per category depending on its breadth, totaling 720 rhymed characters. The work is divided into two parts-the Upper Level Tone and the Lower Level Tone-and does not include the Rising, Departing, or Entering tones.As a primer on rhyme and prosody, another key feature of this book is its focus on composing couplets (dui). In this context, dui refers to paired phrases that match in the number of characters, with corresponding parts of speech and tonal patterns-specifically, the first line ends with a Rising or Departing tone, and the second with a Level tone. The book contains a total of 90 couplet passages, each comprising 78 characters and consisting of ten paired lines. These paired lines come in various lengths: single-character pairs, two-character pairs, three-character pairs, five-character pairs, seven-character pairs, and eleven-character pairs. Specifically, there are 180 single-character pairs, 360 two-character pairs, 90 three-character pairs, 90 five-character pairs, 90 seven-character pairs, and 90 eleven-character pairs.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿720¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿90¿¿¿¿¿¿¿78¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿180¿¿¿¿¿360¿¿¿¿¿90¿¿¿¿¿90¿¿¿¿¿90¿¿¿¿¿90¿¿