The history of charades is very long, dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period. Liu Xiang in the Han Dynasty told the story of the doctor sticking out five fingers to satirize Duke Jinping in the Spring and Autumn Period in "Talking about Zheng Yuanjian", which can be said to be the most primitive charade. Later, during the Warring States period, the salt-free women of Qi also used four movements-raising their eyes, showing off their teeth, raising their hands and pressing their elbows to remonstrate with the king of Qi, which was also a charade in the embryonic stage. However, the more mature charades did not appear until the Three Kingdoms period. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Liu Yiqing's Shi Shuo Xin Yu Wu Jie included stories of Yang Xiu and Cao Cao solve riddles on the lanterns. The author of the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms wrote these stories in the book. For example, Cao Cao wrote a word "live" on the gate of the newly-built garden, and Yang Xiu later realized that this was because the Prime Minister didn't like the door too wide. Another example is that Cao Cao once wrote the word "crisp bite" on a cheese box sent by others, which was also guessed by Yang Xiu, that is, "crisp bite" (the word "bite" can be divided into "bite"), and he ordered everyone to share it.
There are also many riddles in the notes of the Qing Dynasty. It is famous that in the early years of Qianlong, a salt merchant in Yangzhou set a riddle on the Lantern Festival night: he put a silver arhat in a jade plate, asked for an action, and typed seven words and one sentence of "Poems of a Thousand Families", clearly indicating that he would give it as a gift. Later, it was guessed by a scribe, but when he silently picked up the silver arhat and turned the jade plate around, the salt merchant nodded and said it was wonderful, and offered the jade plate as promised. The original answer is "Silver Man silently turned to the jade plate."
There are many stories about solve riddles on the lanterns among the people, especially the story of solve riddles on the lanterns in the Lantern Festival, which was written by Wen Zhiming and Zhu Zhishan, gifted scholars in Wuzhong, in Suzhou. Wen Zhiming and Zhu Zhishan in Ming Dynasty were not only great painters and calligraphers who were good at calligraphy and painting, but also masters of solve riddles on the lanterns. On the Lantern Festival that year, two gifted scholars met in Suzhou to watch the Lantern Festival. On this night, riddles were placed everywhere, and "crossword puzzles" were set up for entertainment. Wen Zhu and his wife went to a crowded place. It turned out that they guessed a riddle around: the owner hung a bird cage on the riddle rack, and a string of copper coins hung next to the cage, and signaled the guesser to make an action, guess a proverb used by the yamen, and give it to the other party if he guessed it correctly. Wen Zhiming thought for a moment, grabbed the copper coin, and wanted to open the cage and let the birds go. The shopkeeper nodded again and again after seeing it. At this moment, Zhu Zhishan stepped forward, grabbed the copper coin in Wen Zhiming's hand with one hand, and grabbed the bird in the cage with the other, only to strangle the bird with too much force. The host said to Zhu Zhishan slightly sadly, "Xianggong guessed right. Why do you bother to kill this bird? It's a sin. " Zhu Zhishan smiled and said to the sky, "He guessed his and I guessed mine. You shouldn't favour one over the other and be stingy with your reward. " When the story came to light, it turned out that Wen Zhiming guessed that the answer was "take money to sell" (the original intention was to release people after accepting bribes), while Zhu Zhishan guessed that the proverb was "murder for money". The host was overjoyed and took out a string of copper coins happily.
With the progress of the times, charades have been continuously improved, and gradually evolved into "lantern riddles" with physical objects as riddles and actions to guess the answers, and the interest has become more intense.
At first glance, crossword puzzles seem confusing, but they are not. As long as you master its two characteristics to guess, the answer will be readily solved.
The first feature is that riddles are physical objects. The second feature is that you guess with actions. So half of its answer lies in the real thing, and the guesser should think about the name (including synonyms and abbreviations) and characteristics of the real thing. The other half of the answer lies in action, because there is action, so the answer must contain verbs (including words that can be interpreted as verbs after "different solutions").
Let's look at an example. Someone put a basin on the table, and there is a red flower next to it, so that the guesser can make an action. This charade has two objects, one is a basin, and the other is a red flower. There must be two names in this mystery. Think again. Traditional Chinese medicine has two flavors of raspberry and saffron, which are named "basin" and "safflower" respectively, and the words "cover" and "hide" can be interpreted as verbs, so we can guess that we can go up and cover the basin with safflower, so that safflower can be hidden inside. Mystery.
Sometimes, in order to solve the puzzle better, the solver will put forward some additional requirements on the side of the physical "puzzle" For example, someone made a charade: there were several keys on the table, and a piece of paper was posted, which said, "The man refused to guess and shoot" and asked for a trick to play Beijing Opera. At this time, a female comrade got up and stepped forward, carefully untied the key rings in the chain one by one, and the host quickly handed the prize because she guessed it right. The answer to this riddle is: women begin to solve, and the chain is set.