What's the point of semantic pun?

Pun is a common rhetorical device. In a certain language environment, a sentence is associated with two things at the same time by means of phonetic or semantic connection. This rhetorical device is called pun.

"Yuan Wailang" is homophonic with "Wolf outside the garden", which refers to both Yuan Wailang and the wolf outside the garden. In contrast to the lion in the garden, it is humorous, playful and interesting.

This kind of pun is called homophonic pun, which uses the homophonic relationship (homophonic or similar) of words.

After the monkey died, he went to see the king of hell and asked for an afterlife.

The prince said, "If you want to be an adult, you must pluck your hair." Just call the kid to pluck the hair. Only when you pull out one will the monkey scream in pain. The prince said, "Look at you, how can you behave?"

This joke satirizes the extremely stingy and selfish people under the guise of fable, and pulls out a gross profit if they don't do it. Finally, a sharp question "How can I be a man?"

The literal meaning of "not pulling a hair" is to refuse to pull out a hair, and the extended meaning is to describe being extremely stingy and selfish. This joke has two meanings: on the surface, it pretends that the Yan scolded the monkey for not pulling a hair; Actually, it is used to satirize extremely stingy and selfish people.

This kind of pun formed by the polysemy of words is called semantic pun.

Baoyu added, "Don't be warm. I only like cold food. " Aunt Xue said, "This can't be done; After eating cold wine, my writing hands are shaking. " Baochai said with a smile, "Brother Bao, thanks to what you collect in your daily chores, don't you know that wine is the hottest? Eat while it is hot and spread quickly; If you eat it cold, it will condense in it. Warming him with five internal organs won't hurt? I won't change it from now on. Don't eat that cold one. " Baoyu put down the cold one and let him drink it while it was hot.

Daiyu ate melon seeds and just sipped her mouth and smiled. It happened that Xueyan, Daiyu's maid, came to give birth to a small stove for Daiyu. Daiyu said with a smile, "Who told you to send it?" Don't disturb him. -It's freezing there! "Xueyan sent:" Sister Zijuan asked me to send it because I was afraid that the girl would be cold. Daiyu took it, held it in her arms and said with a smile, "Thanks to you, you listened to her! What I tell you on weekdays goes in one ear and out the other. How can you listen to him faster than the imperial edict? Baoyu heard this; I know Daiyu laughed at me, but I didn't reply. I just laughed for a while. (The eighth chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions)

A passage that Daiyu said to Xueyan, "you" refers to Xueyan on the surface, but actually refers to Baoyu; "He" refers to Zijuan on the surface, but actually refers to Baochai, which is a pun. But it is different from the homophonic pun and semantic pun mentioned above. Instead, it uses the different relationships between characters in a special language environment to point to the bald and scold the blind. This pun can be called innuendo.

It is said that Jin Shengtan, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, gave his son a couplet before his death: lotus seeds are bitter in the heart and pears are sour in the stomach. Literally, "lotus seeds" and "pears" refer to two kinds of fruits, while Jin Shengtan's two sons are called "lotus seeds" and "pears" respectively. "Lotus seed" is homophonic with ",","pear" and "Li".

Pun is a traditional rhetorical device in Chinese. Proper use of puns means killing two birds with one stone. Sometimes humorous, full of wit. Sometimes euphemism is subtle and intriguing.