Solve riddles on the lanterns is a very interesting thing. Have you ever thought that "riddle" and "hiding" are the same thing, but they are called differently in ancient and modern times? China's riddle can be said to be as old as writing.

Argot is a word game in modern times, but it is a very serious matter in ancient times. Judging from Historical Records, Biography of Funny Stories and Hanshu of Dong Fangshuo, it is a very common trend to love argot in ancient times. If a person knows argot, he can please Lu. Dong Fangshuo is an example. He can "shoot back", and "shoot back" is to guess the code word. A country can win in diplomacy if it has courtiers who can speak argot.

The earliest application of argot is prophecy. Poetry was originally the medium of communication between man and God. People have prayers and dedicate poems to God. God felt something and gave it to people in the form of poems. However, people can be mysterious if they understand what they say and don't understand what God says. So divination refers to all kinds of mysterious documents that predict the future. ) Most of them are code words. Most of our stable words are spoken by gods attached to the human body, such as priests or witches. For example, everyone's interpretation of Zhouyi is different, because most of them are argot.

In primitive society, dreams were also considered as a kind of prophecy. Dreaming is the oldest and most common guessing game.

China's ancient prophecies are full of nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are said to be the function (prophecy) of the stars. There are many prophetic nursery rhymes collected by Guo Maofu in the eightieth volume of Yuefu Poetry, most of which are argot.

Why do you say argot?

Two main reasons:

1. Avoid some things and dare not say it.

2. Use ordinary people's amazement at the mystery to stimulate curiosity.

When argot changes from mysterious prophecy to ordinary people's entertainment, it becomes a kind of harmony. It differs from harmonics in that:

Harmony is the most taboo. Truth rate not only loses its humor, but also easily touches taboos, so it is hidden and decorated with word games.

Definition of concealment

The harmonious object must be the defect of the life world, and there is no limit to the hidden object.

For example:

Busy during the day, thatched cottage at night. (eyes)

Riddle and China's Descriptive Poems

Although people in previous lives liked to do this kind of thing, they didn't regard it as literature. But many of China's riddles can be regarded as descriptive poems, which are embryonic ones. China's large-scale descriptive poems are Fu, which is the embodiment of argot. During the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, argot hobbies were the most prosperous and fu was the most developed.

In Su Shi's Litchi, we can still find its shadow:

Riddle Metaphor and China's Poetry

The riddle is not only the ancestor of China's description, but also the basis of "metaphor" in poetry.

As the old saying goes, when you see a camel, your back is swollen. This is a simile. If you just say "seeing a camel makes a swollen horse", it is a metaphor.

This metaphor is very common in poetry, and the poet's metaphor is just the refinement of this vulgar "one-liners" technique. Although there are differences in depth and elegance, the truth is the same.

After reading this chapter, it is very helpful for me to read the Book of Songs, and I have a new understanding of metaphor and harmony in the Book of Songs.

On metaphors in The Book of Songs:

The first two sentences are argot, and the hermit is sometimes biased towards the image, that is, the quoted thing is similar to the recited thing, such as "Kathy".

There is a tacit understanding between what is quoted and what is recited. For example, the example of Jia Xu is Xing;

The things quoted are similar to those recited, but they also overlap in taste. For example, Guan Ju has both interesting and comparative meanings.

"Bi" and "Xing" were summed up by later generations. The author of The Book of Songs did not write poems according to this standard. This classification is only for convenience, and there is no strict logic. Later, the poet took this too seriously.

Play word games

There is no need to repeat the relevance of argot as metaphor in meaning and pun in sound.

After the Tang Dynasty, word games became more and more popular, and poets often used names of people, places and medicines as puns.

In a word, argot is the embryonic form of descriptive poetry, and fu is the largest in descriptive poetry, and fu comes from obscurity.

Literati's poems follow a lot of pure word games, which I think can be called routines.

1. Overlap: The ancient Xianyang road speaks louder than silence.

2. O: So the northeast wind blew me into your arms.

Use rhyme

Step 4 be parallel

5. palindrome

Most of the forms and techniques of poetry come from folk songs, which inevitably contain the meaning of word games. The greater the poet's ability to control the media, the more elements of the game.

Modern people emphasize artistic conception and interest, but despise word games. But if the word game in the poem is written off, it will lose its charm and a lot of color.

Pictures can be arranged in various intricacies, but poems cannot be arranged in various intricacies to produce beauty.