| Jeng Era “Hsin Lin
Juan” (Han Hsin said these words to compliment himself that he
was more superior then Liu Bon on one occasion while discussing
military matters). The literary reference of Han Hsin in the “History
Book, Huai Yin Ho Series” has been incorporated into these examples.
The incorporation of literary reference in the question of the
riddle is a practice that is full of culture and in general requires
more use of knowledge. If the question is [太守二千石，獨公… the words
are read “senior official two thousand stones, you alone”] for
guessing the colloquialism used in baseball games- the answer
is “ one good, one bad- key shot”. Those without sufficient knowledge
of the historic literature are probably left without the slightest
clue as this riddle incorporated the literary reference of Jih
Hsiao Lan in the Chin Dynasty. According to history, when Jih
was still a kid, one day, while she was playing the ball-kicking
game on the street with other kids, the ball happened to hit the
palanquin of a senior official. All the kids were hesitant to
go up to the official to ask for the ball except for Jih. Upon
observing that Jih was intelligent, the senior official set the
upper couplet of a poem as “among the kids, only you are bad”
and asked Jih to complete the lower couplet of the poem. Without
thinking, Jih responded “ 太守二千擔，獨公……referring to the senior official
that there are two thousand loads, you alone…” without completing
the sentence. The senior official was confused and asked: “ why
didn’t you complete the sentence?” Jih smiled and said: if you
returned the ball to me, then you good, but not, then you are
greedy”. The question of the riddle used Jih’s uncompleted sentence
and upon understanding of the literary reference, the link may
be made to “one good one bad- key shot”. It is indeed a piece
of amazing work, but those who are reluctant to study more will
probably understand the fun within.
Where the historic event is hidden in the history, it means that
the question of the riddle is hidden with a person’s name and
is easier to be understood. For examples: the sentence “ caught
the attention of the king” incorporated the literary reference
of the “Story of the Monkey King” for guessing a person’s name
at present time “ Suan (Wu Kong) Jen”, the sentence “ calm and
furthest” for guessing the ocean creature “ (clam) Sea horse (furthest)”,
the sentence “ I agree” for guessing the name of the character
in the “Four Book” “Tzen Dian” etc all are examples that should
be pin-pointed at once and not be confused. As for other names
used for places and mountains such as San Tong is called Lu, Se
Chuan is called Shu, Tai San is called Di shall also be considered
with care.
iv. Positive and Reverse Thinking
The fourth step is to think from both the positive and contrary
perspectives. The question of the riddle has to be grasped positively
and negatively. If a solution cannot be found positively, then
why not think of the reverse. For example, the question “you and
I are both meaty” for guessing a type of food “ Wei Ta Shredded
Meat” (only his meat is loose- because you and I are both meaty)
and the question “ not rescuing one from dying” for guessing the
occupation “ doctor” (only treats the ones alive” are all examples
of reverse thinking.
4. Going by the Form Code
The fifth method is to go by the “Form Code”, that is, to think
on the basis of hints on riddle forms, included in the question
itself. Sometimes, to enable close correlation between the question
of and the answer to the riddle, the question has to be rephrased.
On these occasions where the questions are rephrased, the person
making the guess must understand the meaning of the various riddle
forms. For example, use the sentence “ give a hand to cousin-in-law
drowning” for guessing “the name of a country at the present time”
and the form is noted in the question as “Rolling Curtain”. If
the form is “rolling curtain”, then the answer to the riddle must
comprise of more than three words and are read in the order of
the last word to the first word as if rolling the curtain. The
answer to this riddle is “Iraq” read as “Qari” (can give her a
pull) in conformation to the question. Another example, use the
sentence “ ugly words were said upfront” for guessing “a colloquialism,
going downstairs”- in accordance with the form code, the answer
“ the nasty person tells his story first” must be read backwards
(that is to move the first word to the last word as if going downstairs).
Riddle forms were seldom used in recent times but they are not
as difficult as one imagined if the form code can be grasped.
5. Direct Comprehension at the show
The last key is to exert one’s imagination. The “comprehension”
of lantern riddles is often the result of imagination, an important
element in literature creation. Liu Sai described used the description
“ Amazing thoughts” of “spirit traveling four oceans, mind going
to eight extremes” to describe people guessing riddles when faced
with difficult questions, are required to exhaust the thoughts,
search the mind and exert strong imagination. If the question
“ front and back rows are full, please do not enter” is used to
guess a word, the answer is originally “齡”- covering the lower
part of the character “齒”, with four people crowded on two rows
of seats, linked to the meaning of “front rows and back rows are
full” and combined the meanings of characters “令、止” thus fit the
words of the question “please do not enter” However, the character
”齕” with part of the character “乞” meaning beg fits the meaning
of the word “please” as stated in the question even better and
can be considered also the right solution. The difficulty of this
question is that it is difficult to imagine the hieroglyphic meaning
of the character “齒”, not possible without very strong imagination.
Hu Shi once used the “boundless trees with falling leaves” to
link to the character “sun”, used in the riddle to comment that
riddle makers “only one knows one’s toes are moving”. Because
for this riddle, the words “蕭蕭” are to be used to make link to
the national surnames of the Southern Song Dynasty and Second
Chi Era. The character “下” refers to character “陳” of 陳霸先, and
to remove the side (left ear), and the character “木” left in the
character “東” falls down leaving the only character “日”. This
riddle is highly imaginative but is not necessary difficult to
be guessed. The question is that riddle guessing is a form of
intellectual competition. It is essential to know one’s own ability
and opponents’. It is not impossible to find the solution if properly
grasping the style of the riddle maker.
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