China's riddles have a very long history and a fairly broad mass base. Throughout the ages, people from all walks of life, men and women, old and young, up to scholars, dignitaries, down to village folk, foolish women and urchins, all have a certain interest in riddles. The treasure house of riddles in China is vast and beautiful.
Guessing is a kind of literary appreciation and a beneficial recreational activity. It can not only inspire people's imagination, exercise their intelligence, but also increase their knowledge and enrich their cultural life, so it is welcomed by people from all walks of life.
riddles are a kind of language skill and art, and they have unique laws and semi-self-contained systems, so it is necessary for us to introduce related riddles to you.
Generally speaking, riddles include lantern riddles and riddles. According to its content, lantern riddles refer to literary riddles, that is, riddles are made by means of knowing, interpreting and pictographic techniques, such as:
Twenty planes fly to the north, and three or four (swallows) are knocked down with a password.
riddles refer to oral riddles or things riddles, which are characterized by describing the shape, dynamics and nature of things, and making riddles in the form of ballads, such as:
I hit you, hit me, hit your skin and beat my blood out. (Killing mosquitoes)
However, they are generally referred to as riddles.
second, the origin of riddles
when it comes to riddles, people always think of guessing activities in literary evenings or newspapers and magazines, thinking that guessing is just a word game. In fact, this is a misunderstanding.
riddles come from social life, and as a language art, they are gradually developed for the needs.
According to the records of ancient books in China, riddles have been used in many fields of life since the pre-Qin period. People either make riddles by clever metaphor, metonymy, image description, or glyph clutch, exhorting and satirizing rulers to achieve their own goals in diplomacy, or secretly communicating information, hiding people's eyes and ears, or joking with each other among people. For example,
1. Password "chicken ribs"-tasteless to eat, but a pity to discard-withdrawing troops
2. The title on the door is "live"-too wide-the door is made too wide
3. Phoenix-
4. Dongpo asked people to wear straw hats and clogs to go to Fo Yin to ask for something: people are in the vegetation, and "tea" is also available.
5. Wukong learned from his master, and the master slapped him on the back of the head three times: he went through the back door in the middle of the night.
It can be seen that riddles are not only a kind of recreational activities, but also have great practical significance.
riddles, as recreational activities, happened after the Southern Song Dynasty.
As there was a custom of putting up lanterns and watching lanterns during the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, it was an indispensable event in the Song Dynasty. On the Lantern Festival, every family decorated lanterns and watched lanterns, which became an indispensable fixed program after the Lantern Festival dinner. Therefore, some people wrote some poems, drew some characters, or wrote some argots and proverbs on the lanterns for the viewers to guess, which started the lantern riddle. The appearance of lantern riddles is of great significance to the development of literati riddles. Since then, guessing activities have gained great popularity and gradually become a favorite game, which has been continuously developed and spread to this day.
So, how did the riddle come into being? We believe that to trace this origin, we can trace it back to ancient ballads, proverbs, oracles, The Book of Songs, esome words and pre-Qin Ci Fu.
Let's look at the ancient ballads. In ancient times, many of these ballads and children's songs often expressed people's demands or hopes for social development and change, which implied specific people and things. For example, there is such a folk song in the list of gods recently broadcast:
The moon will rise, the sun will disappear, and the country will be ruined.
4. A woman (praising the princess for gaining power, the monarch for being fatuous and dominated by others, and dying because of mulberry bows and arrows and swords and soldiers).
Another example is a children's song in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Senecio, He Qingqing, ten days before noon, no birth. Another Taoist holds a pole and hangs a white cloth on it, each with a mouth written on it.
Yinyin: Dong Zhuo should die, be careful of Lu Bu. Dong Zhuo was puzzled, and Su Li blurted out: It's a madman's ear.
Another example is Zhou Wuwang's quotation of an ancient proverb in "Grazing Oath":
There is no morning for a pin chicken, but it is the morning for a hen, but this
means that if a hen does not announce the dawn, her family will decline, alluding to Shang Zhou's favor for da ji, who is obedient and controlled by women.
From the above examples, we can know that these ancient ballads two or three thousand years ago have the meaning of using special words to allude to people and hint at the future.
2. As for oracles, they are even used to allude to personnel and hint at bad luck in the future.
Since Zhou Wenwang invented the Eight Diagrams, oracles have become even more popular in the world. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were diviners in all countries. Whenever there was an important event, they must first offer sacrifices to the gods, and then carry out divination, asking God to ask ghosts and foretell good or bad luck. Today's idiom "life and death are uncertain" comes from this. By the Han Dynasty, this trend was still quite popular.
As the representatives of divinities, diviners can speak for ghosts and gods. In fact, this is just their own words to assess the situation and speculate. For the needs of their duties, they pretend to be ghosts and therefore mystify. Later, astrologers, yin and yang experts, fortune tellers and witches who jumped into the gods appeared.
The characteristics of Oracle inscriptions are to look to the right side, give full play to the deduction, interpret the words, and explain the truth, so as to predict the bad luck and predict the future. Abandoning its superstitious elements, it can be clearly seen that this is the germ of the riddle from its expressive techniques of looking at the text to create meaning and opening the words to explain.
For example, there are two references to word-testing in "The Present Situation of Strange Witnessed in Twenty Years", which are still fresh in my memory:
Someone once lost a maid, went to word-testing, and drew the word "Ba". Mr. Word-testing explained: blocking the right side is a "turn" word, obviously the maid has been turned; Blocking the left is a "goodbye" and we know that we have been "turned" to another home.
On another occasion, a farmer lost a hoe for the first time, went to check the handwriting and drew the word "unitary". When Mr. Check the handwriting, he immediately explained that this "unitary" is like a chicken coop, and the hoe should fall on the back of the chicken coop. The man went home to look for it, and sure enough. The second time, the man lost another pearl, searched all over the back of the chicken coop, but failed to test the word again. As a result, the word "you" was drawn again this time, but when he saw the word "you", he said, "You" belongs to the chicken, and the pearl should have been eaten by the chicken. I went home to kill the chicken and gut it, and I found the pearl again.
Anyone who has seen Fifteen Passes remembers the story that Kuang Zhong, the new magistrate of Suzhou, pretended to be Mr. Pinyin in order to find out the truth:
Lou Rat was afraid of stealing the Fifteen Passes because he killed the gourds. This time, he tested a mouse character, which was a lawsuit. Kuang Zhong explained:
Fourteen paintings of the mouse character, which were paired several times, belonged to the yin. If you take a lawsuit, it is the first disaster. Because the mouse is the first of the 12 zodiac animals, it is the end of disaster, and the situation is like stealing something at home? Is it because rats are good at stealing, or is the family name you stole? ! Rats like stealing oil best, so they know it. Listening to his words, it was not Mr. Ziwen, but a fairy.
In fact, these spelling teachers are of course guessing like riddles. Those who know more are sure, while those who don't know much are ambiguous, so they can't really believe that their results are so effective.
3. Let's talk about The Book of Songs. The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of poems in China, in which a large number of metaphors are used to express their meaning tactfully, just like riddles, such as Guan Sui, Jia Jian, Shuo Shu and so on.
4. The argot of sou_
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in order to test each other's intelligence, the country used the argot of sou_ in selecting talents, identifying talents, transmitting information between countries, or competing with scholars. For the princes, if they say that they want to hit a nail, they will greet them with songs, which means hiding. If the truth can't be said, they will reason with interesting stories and make them happy to say that they accept it.
such as the story of "Big Fish in the Sea".
Scholars, on the other hand, use argot to seize or consolidate their position. Such as Zou Ji and Chunyu Kun's argot war, unexpectedly to governors "smell avoid name, no one dare to join qi".
all of the above can be said to be the precursors of mystery.
6.
Poems and Fu of various schools of thought are closely related to the origin of mystery, especially represented by Fu Pian of Xunzi and Li Sao of Qu Zi. Xunzi once expressed his thoughts by chanting things, such as his Silkworm Fu, which has been hailed as the beginning of writing things in literary puzzles. It says:
You spend the summer in winter, eating mulberry and spinning silk-
The pupa is the mother and the moth is the father-_-
During the Warring States Period, there were books and periodicals dedicated to recording argot, which can be regarded as the earliest mystery book. Qi Xuanwang once published a hidden book and read it.
Poems about objects in the past dynasties were often written in the form of guessing, such as:
Bees
No matter the flat land or the top of the mountain, infinite scenery is occupied. Bees, you harvest flowers to make the nectar, who in the end paid hard, and who want to taste sweet?
willow
It's sunny on the bank, and it's hard to see you off. My own flying floc is still uncertain, and I am trying to solve the problem of stumbling passers-by.
clouds
everything is empty, and the mountains are far away. Infinitely dry seedlings are dying, and the leisurely place is a strange peak.
Third, the development of enigma
As a language art, enigma was formed independently from its mother body in the later Han Dynasty, and it directly entered people's social life in its unique form.
Generally speaking, Cao Ebei and Kong Rong's enigmas are regarded as the earliest finished enigmas, which also marks the development of the enigmas to maturity.
Cao Ebei, in Shangyu, Eastern Han Dynasty, was drowned in the river, and then he threw himself into the river to find his father. After that, he carried his father's body and floated on the river, so he set up a monument for him, and Han Danchun, the son of Beizi, carved it as an epitaph. It was called Cao Ebei in the world, and Cai Yong, the father of Cai Wenji, a great writer, passed by and read it, boasting well, so he wrote eight words on his back:
Yellow silk young woman, grandson, mortar ( Young women, girls are also, so it is wonderful; Grandchildren, women also, so as well; I feel sorry for myself, so it means "excellent words". )
Cao Cao and Yang Xiu crossed the river, but Yang Xiu solved it first, and it took three miles to solve it.
Enigma was independent from the later generations, and it was quite active when it came to the Wei Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Due to the sudden change of dynasties at that time, the political situation was changeable, frequent campaigns and social unrest, scholars of letters advocated Huang Lao's metaphysics, avoiding disasters by talking openly, and it was inconvenient to say it directly, so they had to express their opinions tactfully and tortuous, but as a riddle to "answer each other's explanations and make people unconscious", it was extremely active, especially.
As a result, riddles developed further in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Moreover, due to the appearance of lantern riddles, riddles were popular in the society in the Yuan Dynasty, and then they completely penetrated into all fields of society.
For example, don't say a word of vinegar (remember to be on the 21st)
At the same time, the meter of the riddle is constantly developing, innovative and perfect, and today it is a well-known intellectual game for women and children.
iv. types of enigmas
judging from the activities of enigmas in past dynasties, there are three main functions of conversation, namely, political life, cultural entertainment and feudal superstition.
There are the following kinds of riddles:
1. Mysteries
The argot ways used in exhortation, answering questions, hinting, etc. are mostly mysteries, because they are used to express a complete meaning and explain a thing and a question, so they are called mysteries.
For example, Bodhi's ancestor patted him three times on the back of Wukong's head (implying that he entered from the back door at midnight)
2. The riddle of things
No matter what method is adopted or what kind of riddle is used, as long as the answer is physical, it belongs to the riddle of things. "Silkworm Fu" is the oldest, and there is another poem "Poem Fu Defeated Bow":
The battle for the emperor and the king has fallen (without a goal), and 8, soldiers scattered the songs of Chu (without strings).
Wujiang River is not without a ferry (without a tip), so it's ashamed to send troops to Dongwu again (without a face).
Another example is: Think of that year, when the green temples were dancing,
I returned to Lang's hands, and I was young and yellow.
how many hardships have you suffered and how many storms have you experienced.
don't mention it. If you mention it, tears will flow all over the river. -(punting penny)
3. Puzzle
All puzzles made by written language are collectively called Puzzle, which started with Cao Ebei, and then the trend of making puzzles with the statements of Four Books and Five Classics arose.
4. Name riddle
Anyone who takes a name as a riddle is called a name riddle, and Kong Rong's Poem on the Names of Counties is the earliest.
For example, Daxing 'anling (Lin Ruhai-A Dream of Red Mansions) relies on the masses (relying on everyone's-A Dream of Red Mansions)
5. The crossword puzzle
It is generally recognized that Bao Zhao's three crossword puzzles started, and all the answers are called crossword puzzles.
For example, if the spring rains go on and the wife stays alone-(1) The word "spring" means that there is no "sun" when it rains continuously, and "wife stays alone" means that there is no "husband". )
6. Poetic riddles
Historically, the poem riddles began with "Where is the manuscript anvil?" written by Gu Yuefu. Any riddle with poems and the answer with poems are collectively called poetic riddles.
7. Physical riddle
Anyone who uses physical objects as riddles is called physical riddle, and Cao Caomen's inscription "live" is the earliest.
8. Painting riddles
Using pictures as riddles is called painting riddles. It was first recorded in Xu Zhenqing's "Jian Sheng Ye Wen" in the Ming Dynasty that "painting a woman with a big watermelon in her arms barefoot" (satirizing Ma Huanghou, the wife of Zhu Yuanzhang, with "Huaixi women have big feet"). )
9. charades
You don't use words or pictures, but you use actions to make riddles, which is called charades. There is a saying in Yuanqu that "the charade has long been guessed". For example, an inch of beauty shoots an action-capture (capture)-an inch of beauty also
"Old words, Byakki Smoker" shoots "Please come in".
1. Mental body
It is said that Su Dongpo created this intellectual body by using the size of words, the number of strokes, the oblique position and the density of arrangement as riddles, which is called "writing pictures with intention makes people since the enlightenment".
It's famous that the door was half open in the middle of the night, and no one came.
No one painted the short scenery of the long pavilion, and the boss dragged the bamboo slips horizontally; Looking back at the sunset when the clouds are broken, Qujiang dips into the side peaks.