The origin of crossword puzzles: The earliest crossword puzzles probably appeared during the Han and Wei dynasties. Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long Yin Pian" said: "Since the Wei Dynasty, there have been quite a number of non-virtuoso actors, but gentlemen mocked Yin and turned it into a riddle."
Liu Xie said that riddles came into being in the Wei Dynasty because at that time The literati created many independent and complete word puzzles. For example, Kong Rong, a great writer at that time, wrote a "Poem of Separation and Names of Counties", each sentence has four characters, and every four or two sentences implies a character. The whole poem is twenty-two sentences long and has eighty-eight characters.
The full text is as follows:
The fisherman bends his knot and hides in the water; he advances and stops with the times, and relaxes when he leaves the temple. Lu Gongji hooks, closes the mouth and is beside the Wei River; there are saints in the nine regions, and there is no king without any land. It is good to be upright, and the girl returns to Kuang; there are rogues overseas, and the falcons die and the eagles rise. The six feathers are about to rise, but the feathers have not yet appeared; the dragon and snake sting, so that it can be forgotten. The rose shines in the dim light, and the beautiful jade shines brightly. No one has any reputation, but his words are hidden deep in his heart; if he travels safely according to the bridle, who can say that the road is long?
The answer to this poem together reads "Kong Rong Wenju of the State of Lu" (Kong Rong's Wenju). This acrostic poem by Kong Rong is now recognized as the earliest complete and mature crossword puzzle produced in my country. During this period, in addition to poetic forms, people often used physical objects other than language to express the mysteries of words in a subtle way.
"Shishuoxinyu·Jiewu" records that when Yang Xiu was in charge, he built a national palace for Cao Cao. When the roof trusses were being built, Cao Cao came out to inspect and was quite dissatisfied. So he wrote the word "live" on the door of the prime minister's house and left without saying a word. When Yang Xiu saw this word, he immediately asked people to tear down the door of the Prime Minister's Mansion and rebuild it.
He said: "The word 'movable' added to 'men' is the word 'kuo'. The King of Wei thought that the door was too small." After this incident spread, Cao Cao's mystery creation method Coincidentally, Yang Xiu's skill in solving puzzles was well-known by people at that time.
By the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, word puzzles had become popular. Many literati and celebrities are fond of crossword puzzles, which is a kind of elegant music. Pan Yue of the Jin Dynasty, Xie Lingyun, Xie Huilian, and Bao Zhao of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wang Rong of the Qi State, Xiao Xunzhi, Chen Chenjiong of the Liang State, and others all created many acrostic word puzzles similar to Kong Rong's.
Of course, judging from the puzzle-making skills of this period, there have been great developments. In the radicals of Lihe characters, many methods such as pictograms, metaphors, understandings, and famous object culture were also mixed, which had a positive impact on later generations of crossword puzzles.
In the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, the custom of making and guessing riddles was very popular. Word puzzles are no longer limited to scribes, but have penetrated into every corner of social life.
Various traces of word puzzles can be seen in nursery rhymes, prophecies, inscriptions on tablets, seal paintings, novel notes, opera skills, and drinking codes. From the emperors and generals to the common people, they all took pleasure in riddles, played with riddles, and competed in guessing, which became a current trend.
In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, making up and guessing crossword puzzles was still regarded as a skill, and some people could make a living from it. The best among them are famous all over the world and will be remembered for generations. Wu Zimu of the Song Dynasty recorded in "Menglianglu·Novel Lecture History": "Those who offer riddles should first use drums to congratulate them.
Then people will gather to guess poetry riddles, word riddles, violent riddles, and social riddles. This book This is a code word... Hangzhi's riddle-guessers will tell you something, if there are monks and Ma Dingzhai who have asked Bo Qia, their names have been passed down for a long time.
"This just illustrates the popularity of crossword puzzles at that time and people's respect for those who can make and guess puzzles