Guess lantern riddles during the Lantern Festival! Here’s a secret tip for guessing riddles…

Guessing lantern riddles is a fun activity during the Lantern Festival in my country. On February 12, we will usher in this year's Lantern Festival. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, every Lantern Festival, people would write riddles on pieces of paper and paste them on colorful lanterns for people to guess. The name "lantern riddles" came from this, and gradually became an indispensable entertainment activity during the Lantern Festival. Lantern riddles cover a wide range, including word riddles, object riddles, idiom riddles, poetry riddles, personal name riddles, and place name riddles.

As an important member of the riddle family, word riddles are a very exquisite art of language application. In the process of guessing word riddles, it is necessary to combine the shape, sound and meaning of Chinese characters, and apply various thinking methods such as association, reasoning and imagination, which can greatly promote people's ability to apply words, exercise their thinking ability and stimulate their creativity.

The shape, pronunciation and meaning of Chinese characters are the three basic elements, which are interrelated and interdependent. When guessing Chinese character puzzles, it is necessary to use them skillfully.

The shape of a character includes strokes, stroke order and structure. By matching and combining the strokes and components of Chinese characters according to the clues on the riddle, the guessing activity becomes interesting. For example, guess a character with "水落石出", and the answer is "泵". According to the clues on the riddle, combine "水" and "石" together, with "石" on top and "水" on the bottom, so it is "泵". "泵" and "水落石出" are linked together, and the whole Chinese character looks very vivid.

The pronunciation of a character includes initial consonants, final consonants and tones. Accurate pronunciation is the basis of language communication and an important part of learning Chinese characters. For example, if you use "crying sounds tearing the dusk drum sound" to guess a character, the answer is "ku". "Crying sounds" can be understood as the answer having the same sound as "crying"; "tearing the dusk drum sound" can be understood as the answer having the same pronunciation as "dusk" and "drum" after the character is separated. "ku" and "ku" are homophones, and the two components of "ku", "mu" and "gu", are homophones as "dusk" and "drum" respectively, which just meets the requirements.

The meaning of characters is the key to people's expression and communication using Chinese characters. Character puzzles belong to the category of literal meaning puzzles, and often require a different interpretation of the meaning of the characters in the puzzle. For example, the answer to guessing a character with the word "复习" is "羽". The "习" in "复习" originally means "learning", but here it needs to be understood as a character. "复习" can be interpreted as repeating "习" once, so it becomes "羽".

Below are a few riddles. The answer to each puzzle is just one word. I hope they can bring some joy to everyone.

Riddle: It is not okay to marry close relatives, and it is time to get rid of the old and welcome the new. Analysis: "It is not okay to marry close relatives, and it is time to get rid of the old and welcome the new." "It is not okay" can be understood as the combination of the two characters "亲" and "近", and "it is not okay" can be understood as removing the "辶" ("辶" often means "walking"), which is equivalent to combining "亲" and "斤" together, which is "新"; people often say "get rid of the old and welcome the new", so "get rid of the old and welcome the new" also means "new".

Riddle: Afternoon, a short vertical stroke and a long horizontal stroke, four seasons complete a year. Analysis: "Afternoon" refers to the bottom of "noon", and "noon" with a short vertical stroke and a long horizontal stroke below it forms the word "year"; a year includes four seasons, and "year" and "year" are synonymous. Therefore, the answer is "year".

Riddle: Celebrities meet on New Year's Eve. Analysis: "名" and "士" contain three parts: "夕", "口" and "士". Excluding "夕", only "口" and "士" are left. "口" and "士" combine (meet) to form the word "吉".

Riddle: The sheep turns into a monkey, which is actually a god. Analysis: "Monkey" is "Shen". "The sheep turns into a monkey, which is actually a god" can be reversed to "Shen" minus "Shen" and adding "Sheep", so the answer is "Xiang".

Riddle: A person wearing a veil. Analysis: "Gaitou" literally means the red silk cloth that the bride covers her head, but here it needs to be interpreted as the upper part of the word "盖", which, combined with "一" and "人", is the answer to the riddle "美".

Riddle: The word "林" has an extra half, don't guess it as "森". Analysis: "The word "林" has an extra half" can be understood as "林" plus "木" (an extra half of "林"), which is "森". But the riddle also suggests "don't guess it as "森", so we can only think from another angle. "An extra half" can be interpreted as the half of the word "多", and the half of the word "多" is "夕", and the combination of "夕" and "林" is the answer "梦".

Riddle: There are words but no lies, there is land but no country. Analysis: "Lies" is opposite to "誠", "countryside" is opposite to "城(市)". "誠" minus "讠(言)" is "成", "城" minus "土" is also "成". Therefore, the answer is "成".

Riddle: Three o'clock arrives in Yunnan, the pronunciation of Zhen is not false. Analysis: The riddle seems to be saying: carefully distinguish the pronunciation of the sentence "Three o'clock arrives in Yunnan", it does not sound like a false sentence. But as a word puzzle, it actually means something else. The abbreviation of "Yunnan" is "Dian", and "Three o'clock arrives in Yunnan" can be interpreted as "氵 (three o'clock)" plus this word is "Dian", so this word is "Zhen"; "Zhen pronunciation" means that the answer is the same as "Zhen", and "Zhen" also meets the requirements; "not false" and "Zhen" are consistent in meaning. Therefore, the answer is "Zhen". This riddle uses the shape, pronunciation and meaning of the word in a comprehensive way, and is designed quite cleverly.

(The author Gu Jun is a director of the Guangxi Linguistics Society and a teacher at the Department of Chinese International Education, School of Foreign Languages, Guilin University of Electronic Technology)

Dear readers, have you figured it out? The answers to the eight riddles in this article are the best wishes from all the editorial staff of Science Popularization Times to our readers:

Happy New Year! May your dreams come true!