Couplets for character formation or breakup

These Google Groups articles, transferred from earlier newsgroups and dated 8 Feb 1990, are the earliest ones which I could find. Chinese characters are not easy to input into computer, let alone to display them in a newsgroup on the Internet.

In this thread, the author Bryan might be a student or staff of Computer Science Department, you can understand only a computer major knew how to make a Chinese characters out of four basic ASCII symbols: dash, dot, comma, and vertical bar, which look like composed of matches. Bryan must be a Chinese or have Chinese background, because he said, Couplets is the Chinese word game (similar as English crossword in some aspects) that entertained him most when he  was younger. He could remember a lot of those couplets, but he as he grew older, most of them got "paged out" and forgot. Below is one of his favourites, Please note that  in a webpage, the ASCII symbols are jagged and out of position, you may copy and paste to notepad for a better veiw, or click the picture alternatively:
                         _
    |  |      __|__     |,|       |_ |_                             |
    |- |-      /|\     -----     ||_ |_,        |         |      |__|__|
  |_|_ |      / | \      |-      ---|---     |  |  |   |  |  |      |
       `--'     |      /\|__      ' | `      `-----'   `-----'   |__|__|

(   This      wood      is        a log        every mountain     grows  )
（此木是柴山山出）
   _______                                                        ____
  |       |     |     ___|_,      |   ___      /___     /___      /, /
  | --|-- |   ` | '   |_ |       /|- |_|_|    /   /    /   /       _/
  |  / \  |    / \    | | \|      |  | | |     \ /      \ /      /__  
  |_______|   /   \  .' '  '\_   .'\ |/_\|   ___/     ___/      / , /
                                                                 __/

( Because of  fire   it becomes    smoke      every evening    has plenty )
（因火成烟夕夕多）
  Notice that the word "a log" in the upper couplet is composed of
  "this" and "wood", and the word "grows" is composed of "every
  mountain".  This holds for the words "smoke" and "has plenty" in
  the lower couplet.

 (Click to enlarge)

 

The following is his another favorite that he don't know of the matching
couplet (some well-known couplets are well-known because no matches
exist),
                       ,  _      , ,  _     ___,___
  _|__   |      |     |_  _|    /| |_ _|   ' _____ '     |     __|_ __
   | | ' | '   / \    |____|     | |___|     -'\ ,     ' | '     | |
   `/_  _/    /   \    _)|__,    | _) |_,    -' |\_     _/       `/_
   '                                         -'.'                '
(   Nice           girl      is   Ngai's   family's    young    girl  )
   Notice that the word "Nice" is composed of the last two words,
   while "Ngai" (a last name) is composed of the 2nd and 3rd words.

妙人兒倪家少女

We can find many to lower line to match this witty upper line, such as bellow:
大言者诸葛一人

OR

搞长弓张府高手

  
Bryan also shared another one from Jin Yong's novel Eagle Hunting Hero, in the last one that Huang Rong solved when they were on their way to look for Yi Deng:

___ ___  ___ ___  ___ ___  ___ ___                     _______
_|_ _|_  _|_ _|_  _|_ _|_  _|_ _|_               |        |
_|_ _|_  _|___|_  _|_,_|_  _|_ _|_    , \     ___|___   __|__
 |_ |_    |_|_|    _/,\_   ,   . ,   /   \_      |        |
 |_ |__,  |____,     >      _X__,              _/ \__  ___|___
( Name of 4 musical instruments       eight    great   emperors
    _______  _______                      _   _                    
       |        |     ____|__            |_|_|_|  ___|__'  __||__   O O _|_'
     __|__    __|__   ___/        |__     |_|_|      |     __||__   [+]  |
       |        |       | _|_     |       |_|_|      |/    __||__   -|-  |/
    ___|___  ___|___    | _|_  ___|___   ___|___     /\__    ||      |   `.
                                            |
    each emperor        is the highest  a single  spear    is no     battle )
,___ __.__ ,___       ,___  ___  ,___                            __,__
|_|_||_X_| |_|_| _|_  |_|_||_v_| |_|_| ___    _____      |      |__|__|
|_|_| _,_  |_|_| _|_  |_|_|||__| |_|_| _|_   | ) \ |  '  |  `   |__|__|
 | | | <.)  | |  .|,   | | |   |  | | |^|^|  |_____|     |        | |
-' |_____, -' |_____, -' |_____, -' |_____,              '        | |__,
                                                                  '
( 4 types of spirits and monsters             four     small    ghosts
                                    _,_                                    /_\
    __,__   __,__       __|__       |_|                ___,     __       _/ o \_
   |__|__| |__|__|   _'  _|_   _'   |_|      | \       __|__   |__| __     __,
   |__|__| |__|__|    > [_+_]   >  _|_|_   _/ __ \__  ___|___  |__| | |    _|_
     | |     | |     _> __|__  _> ' _,_ '     __         |     |__  | |   __|__
     | |__,  | |__,   \___|__   \___/__)_    |__|       -'     |__  | '    _|
     '       '                                                            
    each ghost       stays side by side      close    hand  will immediately
                                                                         seize )

  (Click to enlarge)

Note: the four instruments all have 2 "emperors" on top ("highest"),
      and the word "battle" is composed with "single" and "spear".
      the four monsters all have a "ghost" by their "sides", and the
      word "seize" is composed with "close" and "hand".
      I heard from an elder person that the above couplet was "matched"
      by a Belgian priest when he preached in China in Ching Dynasty.
      If this is true, I feel ashamed for my own Chinese AND English!