Chinese riddles stand in a tradition traceable to around the second century CE. They are partly noted for their use of elaborate visual puns on Chinese characters.
According to Timothy Wai Keung Chan, 'the Chinese riddle originates in far antiquity and reached its mature form around the
Warring States Period
The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
(475–221 BCE)'. However, few riddles are attested in ancient Chinese literature, possibly because Chinese scholarship viewed the form as inappropriate to highbrow literature. The seminal literary historian Liu Xie, writing his '' Wenxin diaolong'' in the fifth century CE, situated the beginning of literary riddle-writing in Chinese in the
Wei dynasty
Wei or WEI may refer to:
States
* Wey (state) (衛, 1040–209 BC), Wei in pinyin, but spelled Wey to distinguish from the bigger Wei of the Warring States
* Wei (state) (魏, 403–225 BC), one of the seven major states of the Warring States per ...
(220–65); he did not quote examples, but his dating is roughly consistent with the dating of one of the earliest surviving Chinese riddles, the 'Yellow Pongee Riddle'.
The posing and solving of riddles has long been an important part of the Chinese Lantern Festival; "the date of the origin of the lantern riddle is not definite, but according to Japanese writers it probably first became popular during the Northern Sung dynasty (960–1126), and became associated with the Feast of Lanterns during the 17th century".
Terminology
In modern Chinese, the standard word for 'riddle' is ''mi'' (謎, literally "to bewilder"). Riddles are spoken of as having a ''mian'' (面, "surface", the question component of the riddle), and a ''di'' (底, "base", the answer component). Ancient Chinese terms for 'riddle' include ''yin'' (讔) and ''sou'' (廋), which both mean "hidden".Timothy Wai Keung Chan, 'A New Reading of an Early Medieval Riddle', ''T’oung Pao'', 99 (2013), 53–87 .
Character riddles
The Chinese riddle-tradition makes much use of visual puns on Chinese characters. One example is the riddle "千 里 会 千 金"; these characters respectively mean 'thousand kilometre meet thousand gold'.
#The first stage of solving the riddle is verbal:
##In Chinese culture, "it is said that a good horse can run thousands of kilometers per day", so "千 里" (thousand kilometer) is resolved as "马" (horse).
##Meanwhile, because "a daughter is very important in the family", in Chinese culture it is possible to resolve "千 金" (thousand gold) as "女" (daughter).
#The second stage of solving the riddle is visual: combining the radical "马" (horse) with the radical "女" (daughter) produces the character "妈" (mother).
Thus the answer to "thousand kilometres meet thousand gold" is "妈" (mother).
Precursors to character riddles
Although character riddles are not attested until around the second century CE, other enigmatic writings are attested from as early as the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
, which began in 206 BCE. These take the form of riddle-like prophecies. One example is
This cryptic text can be explained by combining the three characters of the first line into the single graph ''wei'' (巍), which is used interchangeably with (魏). Among its meanings is the state of
; thus the text can be read as an enigma whose solution is that Cao Wei will overcome the Han dynasty and take over its empire.
Early character riddles
Reputedly the earliest surviving example of a character riddle is the 'Yellow
Pongee
Pongee is a type of slub-woven fabric, created by weaving with yarns that have been spun by varying the tightness of the yarn's twist at various intervals. Pongee is typically made from silk, and results in a textured, "slubbed" appearance; po ...
Riddle', a famous text sometimes attributed to the second-century CE scholar Cai Yong, but at any rate thought to originate no later than the early fourth century. Its earliest surviving attestation is on a piece of pongee silk held in Liaoning Provincial Museum. The riddle runs 'Yellow silk, young maiden; maternal grandchild, shredded pickle in sauce, mortar' (黃絹幼婦外孫臼). The solution, first attested in the third-century '' Dianlüe'' (which does not, however, quote the riddle itself), is 'utterly wonderful, lovely, words!'. This is explained in the fifth-century ''
Shishuo xinyu
''A New Account of the Tales of the World'', also known as ''Shishuo Xinyu'' (), was compiled and edited by Liu Yiqing (Liu I-ching; 劉義慶; 403–444) during the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) of the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–58 ...
'', which depicts the Eastern Han chancellor
Cao Cao
Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate Grand chancellor (China), grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the End of ...
saying '"Yellow pongee" is colored silk (''sesi'' 色絲), which, combined in one character, is ''jue'' 絕, "utterly". "Youthful wife" is young woman (''shaonü'' 少女), which, combined in one character, is ''miao'' 妙, "wonderful". "Maternal grandson" is a daughter's son (''nüzi'' 女子), which, combined in one character, is ''hao'' 好, "lovely". "Ground in a mortar" is to suffer hardship (''shouxin'' 受辛), which, combined in one character, is ''ci'' 辭, "words". The whole thing thus means: "utterly wonderful, lovely words"'. Because the riddle was believed to have been composed as part of a memorial to a second-century girl called Cao E ('Maiden Cao'), character riddles of this kind have come to be known as 'Cao E Type' riddles (''Cao E ge'' 格).
Riddles in Zen Buddhist education
A distinctive kind of riddle known in English as the ''
kōan
A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen.
Etymology
The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
in the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
(618–907), with most examples surviving from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. In this tradition, the answer to the riddle is to be established through years of meditation, informed by Zen thought, as part of a process of seeking
enlightenment
Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to:
Age of Enlightenment
* Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
. To give a later Japanese example of the form by
Hakuin Ekaku
was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as the reviver of the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation, focusing on rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice.
Biograp ...
(1686–1769), 'two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?' (). In the exposition of Victor Hori,
Modern folk-riddles
In the twentieth century, thousands of Chinese riddles and similar enigmas have been collected, capitalising on the large number of homophones in Chinese. Examples of folk-riddles include:
* There is a small vessel filled with sauce, one vessel holding two different kinds. (Egg)
* Washing makes it more and more dirty; it is cleaner without washing. (Water)
* There is a big rooster. When it sees someone, then it makes a bow. (Tea pot)
* A certain family lived in two courts with many children in each, and, strange to say, the greater were less than the lesser and the less were more than the greater. (Abacus)
* When I go out, I am thick and fat. When I come home, I am meager like a skeleton. Then I am put in a corner against the wall and my tears flow freely. (Umbrella)
* When you use it you throw it away, and when you do not use it you bring it back. (Anchor)Richard C. Rudolph, "Notes on the Riddle in China", ''California Folklore Quarterly'', 1.1 (Jan. 1942), pp. 65–82 (quoting pp. 74–75). .
Editions and translations
* ''Chinese Riddles: Chinese Text, Full Romanisation, Full Vocabulary and Full Translations'', ed. and trans. by William Dolby, Chinese culture series, 21 (Edinburgh: Carreg Publishers, 2007).