1. Lantern riddle is a word game of hide and seek.

Lantern riddles are a unique word game of the Chinese nation.

China's square characters have many miraculous effects: first, the structure of each Chinese character is composed of several strokes, radicals or words, which can be disassembled and assembled like building blocks; Secondly, Chinese characters are essentially hieroglyphics, and each character is like a simple stick figure, which makes people want to know what it looks like; Third, the same Chinese character often has many different meanings, and some words have multiple sounds, different sounds and different meanings; If the word meaning is transformed in the form of "replacing trees with flowers", it will often produce the effect similar to the "burden" in cross talk.

Lantern riddles are word games created by assembling and disassembling Chinese characters, pictographs, changing the meaning and pronunciation of words and making people guess.

This puzzle starts with the character structure: two "years old" characters are removed from the word "evening", leaving two "mountains", and then together they get the answer "Chu".

This riddle uses pictographic techniques: the word "unitary" looks like a wine jar vertically and looks like an ancient hand-pulled bellows horizontally.

This riddle is an article about the meaning of words: "myopia" in the riddle was originally a disease name. After entering the riddle, the meaning changed to "close look", and the original "prevention of myopia" has now become "prevention of mutual close look (plagiarism)".

2.？ Lantern riddle is a short and pithy literary work.

Among literary works, there are millions of novels, dozens of poems and songs, and lantern riddles are the shortest. A word, a word or even a word can be a mystery.

Although the mystery is small, it is very essence. Lantern riddles not only pay attention to words and sentences, but also pay attention to literary talent. Its characteristics and charm lie in the seamless cooperation between riddles and answers. Good riddles show different styles because of different creative techniques, whether elegant, bold, clever or humorous, they will bring strong aesthetic appeal to people. There is a special chapter at the back of this book to enjoy all kinds of riddles for readers. Stepping into the door of riddles, we should not only pay attention to the gameplay of riddles, but also pay attention to their literariness. ?

A lantern riddle generally consists of three parts, namely riddle, riddle and answer, and a few riddles and puzzles (puzzles will be introduced later).

Mystery: also known as puzzle, it is the content of examination questions for people to think about.

Puzzle: guess the scope of riddles, such as idioms, place names, movies, etc. In the past, the word "guess" was often added in front of riddles, but now it is not customary, and the riddles after this lecture are also omitted.

Answer: The answer to the puzzle.

Third, the first step in learning puzzles

As the saying goes, do as the Romans do. People have folk customs, family rules, riddles have their own rules of the game. If you want to learn riddles, you must first master the laws that people gradually form in the process of guessing riddles, so as to avoid detours.

1. The answer is that "appearance" is not allowed.

The so-called answer can't "appear" means that the existing words in the riddle can't appear on the answer. Just like a child hiding from a cat. If you show a braid, you will commit the taboo of "hiding".

The riddle is a poem written by Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, which means "when people get old, their thoughts will become stupid". Novices who see this mystery often report the answer "old fool" without thinking. Wrong, because the riddle has the word "old", so don't repeat the answer. The correct answer to this riddle is "smart", which means "smart when I was a child".

If the answer you come up with contains any word in the riddle, it must be wrong. You should look for the correct answer.

2. Mysteries and answers cannot be "reversed"

The so-called "upside down" means that the relationship between the riddle and the answer is chaotic, and the meaning of the answer is less than that of the riddle. If there are words such as "peony" and "peony" in the riddle, it can be guessed that it is the "flower" in the riddle; If there is a word "flower" on the riddle, you can guess it is "plant", but you can never guess it is "peony".

If you guess the answer is Mudanjiang, you have committed the crime of "hanging upside down", because the "fallen flowers and residual red flowers" may not be peony, but it may also be other flowers, and the "clean stream" may be a stream or a river, but it may not be a river. The positive solution to this mystery is "Chishui"

Don't look for an upside-down answer smaller than the riddle concept.

There is no direct solution between the answer and the riddle, there must be another solution.

Lantern riddles use the ambiguity of Chinese characters to change the original meaning of riddles or riddles into another meaning, which is also called "another solution" in lantern riddle terminology. Lantern riddles are "expensive in other solutions", and no other solution is a mystery!

The following two riddles, one of which is not a lantern riddle, can you identify it?

The original meaning of the idiom "get together" is "to integrate people", in which the word "fight" refers to the behavior of interacting with people. Obviously, the riddle and the answer in the example 1 go straight to the point and do not change the original meaning of the idiom, so it cannot be regarded as a riddle.

The riddle of Example 2 is taken from Li Bai's poem Midnight Wu Ge. In ancient times, clothes were made with an anvil. The anvil was a cushion stone and the pestle was a wooden stick. In this riddle, the author skillfully interprets the word "beating" in the riddle as "beating" clothes with a wooden stick; On the banks of the Shuiwan River, the sound of "ten thousand households" smashing clothes came and went, and they became one piece. This artistic conception has nothing to do with the meaning of the original idiom, so it is full of mystery and beauty.

The most common mistake for beginners to guess riddles is that they always want to do "riddle solving" work in Chinese class to guess riddles, or make straightforward and regular reasoning.

There is such a riddle:

At different lantern riddles, there is always speculation that "opening books is beneficial". As long as you read a new book and a good book, you will benefit. This is still a reasoning judgment with no other solution. So the answer does not meet the requirements of the riddle. The correct answer is "Let bygones be bygones". Don't forget the past, the original meaning is "don't forget the past", which is interpreted as "don't read old books and bad books" in the mystery.

The main points of guessing riddles must be guessed by turning points, and riddles must have different solutions.

4.？ The answer can't be homophonic (except for the standard riddle).

As we all know, there are many homophones in Chinese characters, but their shapes and meanings are quite different. This is what we often call homophones with different homophones. Lantern riddle is a rigorous literary form, different from folk riddles and allegorical sayings, and it is not allowed to directly combine riddles with homophones.

Folk riddles often use homophonic techniques to confuse guessing people.

This paper uses homophonic ecstasy in riddles. When reading it to others, write "the head of the river is solid with mud" as "the head of a monk and the feet of a nun", which makes the guesser confused.

The riddle uses homophonic words in the answer.

One-liners widely circulated among ordinary people often use homophonic words.

Many beginners of lantern riddles are influenced by the above folk riddles and allegorical sayings, and they want to tie the riddles with homophonic characters to solve the riddles on lanterns. This habit must be corrected.

It should be noted that in order to accommodate some riddles and make them riddles, predecessors invented many riddles that must use homonyms, such as "Bai Touge", "Root Gege" and "Pear Gege", which will be introduced in other chapters later.

The main points of guessing riddles are not riddles, and you must never guess with homophones.

As the saying goes, "everything is difficult at the beginning." Now that you have taken the first step in learning puzzles, a good beginning means half the battle. As long as we further learn and master the basic methods and skills of riddles, the road to riddle art will be a smooth road full of charm and temptation.