What is a lantern riddle?

"Lantern riddle", also known as "playing riddles", is an activity of the Lantern Festival, which first appeared in the Song Dynasty.

The riddle entered a period of great development in the Song Dynasty. Kyoto is a place where politics, economy and culture are concentrated. With the strong national economic strength and the improvement of people's material living standards, corresponding cultural activities have emerged. In the Northern Song Dynasty, a place dedicated to geisha appeared in the capital of song dynasty-Washe. Riddle is one of the hundred plays, which has gained unprecedented popularity through the spread of business and geisha places. The wind of making riddles and guessing riddles is very strong, and a large number of riddle artists such as Ma Dingzhai, Huo Baichou, Zhang, Hu Liulang and Wei Dalin have emerged.

As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month has become a folk custom. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was even more warm and grand. According to Song Meng's Tokyo Dream: "On the fifteenth day of the first month, there will be a lantern festival in front of the door, and the New Year will be celebrated from the winter solstice. The mountain shed will be opened and the wooden stand will be opposite the Xuande Building. Tourists have gathered, and under the two corridors of the Imperial Street, there are strange skills, songs and dances, scales, scales, and the music is noisy for more than ten miles. " Forced by Jin, the Northern Song Dynasty moved its capital to Lin 'an to find a peaceful corner. In order to whitewash the peace, every year the rulers invite Chinese people to decorate the Lantern Festival to celebrate important events. The so-called "Southern Song Dynasty full of lanterns". Taking this opportunity, some literati "cut poems with silk lanterns, sometimes mocking, sometimes depicting characters, hiding their heads and teasing pedestrians." At this point, the lamp came into contact with the riddle, forming an indissoluble bond, and the "lantern riddle" was born. The riddle at this time refers to the riddle written on the lamp, not the riddle of meaning now, and there is an essential difference between them.

With the emergence of riddles, a riddle organization appeared. At that time, a riddle club was established in Lin 'an, the capital of the Song Dynasty. According to Naide Weng's Jingshi Jisheng, there are two argots, namely, the dirty Zhai in the north and the dirty Zhai in the south and the western Zhai in the west, all of which are based on Jiangyou riddle. The stream of riddles and poems is extracted into a fast one. " The members of the riddle club are all literati who fly poetry. They either rewarded each other with riddles, mocked each other with riddles, played riddles, or wrote books, all of which promoted the development of riddles in the future.

The diversification of riddle forms is an important symbol of the great development of riddle in Song Dynasty. Crossword puzzles, physical puzzles, painting puzzles, printing puzzles and famous puzzles dominated the riddle world at that time, forming a certain guessing system, such as Tao puzzles, guessing right, next episode, paste set, wisdom, horizontal, asking questions, eyes and ears. There are many riddles handed down from the Song Dynasty. Up to now, there are more than 70 riddles collected from various ancient books, most of which are poems. Wang Anshi was not only a politician and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, but also an influential riddle expert. He is good at guessing riddles. Some unofficial history in Song Dynasty recorded some of his riddle activities and riddles, such as adding two points to the word "mu" instead of guessing the word "bei". Beizi owes two points, no guessing. "Shoot the words" he "and" zi "respectively. Another example is "I always follow the measures of leading officials, full of elegant articles, sometimes wearing red makeup and loving romantic." "guess the mystery of" seal "

On the basis of riddles in Sui and Tang Dynasties in Song Dynasty, painting riddles and physical riddles developed rapidly. Here are two riddles quoted by Su Dongpo and Fo Yin, which can be seen. According to Dongpo Collection, "Dongpo picked up a piece of paper and drew a monk with a fan in his right hand and a long-handled hedge in his left. Fo Yin said,' You can discuss this mystery', and Fo Yin pondered for a long time:' Isn't it the language in the preface to Guansui?' Dongpo said,' What is it?' Fo Yin replied: "The wind can move it, and teaching can change it." . Don't you think so? Dongpo said:' My teacher is also capable.' Just laughing. "According to Dan Lead Miscellanies," Fo Yin took 250 yuan and showed it to Dongpo to discuss this mystery with you. "Dongpo wanted to think, and later said to Fo Yin,' One dollar has four words, and two hundred and fifty dollars is one thousand words. Is this a riddle of 1000 words? Fo Yin just smiled. "

Scholars in Song Dynasty were good at seal cutting and attached importance to seal cutting science, which led to the appearance of seal cutting spectrum, thus solving the most primitive mystery of seal cutting. According to Song Dynasty's "The Story of Clouds Passing Eyes", Jiang Kui, a famous poet in Song Dynasty, carved his name as a riddle on the seal. The seal reads: "The eagle flies around the room and the phoenix waits for the court." The first sentence is quoted from the Book of Songs, "Wei Shi, when Yang", and hidden ginger. The last sentence is quoted from Shangshu, "Kui Qule, Phoenix comes to the instrument", and "Kui" is hidden. Jiang Kui's seal riddle is a pioneering work, which has played a role in attracting jade for the later development of seal riddle.

In the Song Dynasty, riddles of names with names as mysterious materials became more and more common and occupied a place in the mysterious world. Song Pengcheng's "Mo Ke Dao Xi" recorded such a name riddle: "A beautiful woman pretended to be drunk and asked for help, revealing the white jade skin on her chest, but she couldn't find it when she walked into the account, leaving her covered in Feng Shui." The words are subtle and colorful, and the feelings are lingering. Every sentence implies a poet in the Tang Dynasty, namely: Jia Dao (fake autumn), Li Bai (Li Bai), Luo Yin and Pan Lang (war wave).

All true art has great vitality. The riddle did not stop and disappear after the Song Dynasty, but continued to develop in different historical environments and conditions. In all kinds of riddle activities, the bachelor of arts has always been the protagonist. Mystery novels appeared in Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there were four volumes of Collected Works published by Su Dongpo, Huang, Wang Anshi, etc. During Jin Zhangzong's reign, there was a White Tiger Note edited by Yang Puxiang, a Sichuanese. In the first year, Zhu Shikai, a native of Zhejiang Province, compiled a Chronicle of Heaven and Earth. Due to the influence of the times and regional culture, lantern riddles in the Yuan Dynasty were temporarily at a low ebb, and the number was small. Even so, there were still many excellent works. For example, the great poet Sadula created a riddle, which can be found in his Wild Goose Gate Collection: "Open like a wheel, fold like a lotus leaf, cut paper and adjust glue to protect Hsinchu, and the lotus leaves in Japan and China show graceful shadows." The banana is quiet in rainy days, and it is sunny and cloudy. " The answer is "umbrella", which expresses ambition with riddles and has extraordinary skill in solving puzzles.