The drums invite the tiger to pass on the mystery note to the hometown
A few days ago, the Chenghai District Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (hereinafter referred to as the "Chenghai Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese") took advantage of the Lantern Festival to take advantage of the Lantern Festival and produced a short video "Drums Invite Tigers to Pass on the Mystery Notes to The Hometown Feelings."
For a time, the eyes of overseas Chinese and Chinese in the world once again focused on the overseas Chinese town of Shantou Chenghai, which is the "hometown of Chinese folk lantern riddle art".
What is so different about the Chenghai Lantern Riddle that it has been passed down for more than 300 years? The reporter of Nanfang Daily conducted an interview on this issue.
The unique chaoshan guessing method originated in the Song Dynasty
"Shangyuan lights the sixth street red, and the shadow of the person is everywhere." A smile meets no other news, who is the lamp tiger system to work. It is a poem left by a Poet of the Qing Dynasty describing the grand situation of lantern riddle quiz in the Chaoshan region.
Chenghai guesses the wind of the riddle of the lamp for a long time. The "Chronicle of Chenghai County" during the Kangxi Period of the Qing Dynasty records that "those who do good deeds or poems for the head of the Tibetan head make guessers a group of people, and they are riddled with lanterns."
The name "riddle" comes from the fact that people wrote riddles on lanterns and became popular in the Song Dynasty early on. The riddle is also known as the "lantern tiger", because the riddle is more difficult than the riddle, and the riddle is like a roadblock in the grass. Therefore, guess the riddle, also known as "shooting tiger". 2022 is the Year of the Tiger of the Chinese Zodiac, which is even more appropriate.
Zhang Zheyuan, former deputy director of the China Lantern Riddle Academic Committee and a representative inheritor of the provincial level of the national intangible cultural heritage Chenghai Lantern Riddle, introduced the characteristics of the Chenghai Lantern Riddle in the video "Drums Invite the Tiger to Pass on the Mystery to the Hometown".
The difference between Chenghai Lantern Riddle is that its mainstream guessing method is from Lin'an (now "Hangzhou") in the Song Dynasty to the present. From the riddle number, the puzzle face, the puzzle, the puzzle to the final explanation, they are all guided by drumming, called "si drum lead guess", which is unique to Chaoshan in China. Zhang Zheyuan believes that today's "si drum lead guess" should be the maintenance and continuation of the Song people's "drumming and shooting words" style.
The main rules are as follows: the host announces the opening with three drums, guesses the puzzle number, the main drum strikes; the puzzle surface, one blow; the puzzle eye, one hit; the puzzle bottom, the middle double-click, indicating "the middle is", not hit; the guesser still has to explain, the explanation is correct, the heavy drum three blows "all through" to show praise, while the prize is held in both hands; if the explanation is not comprehensive or only guesses part of it, then "Bu Dong Bu Dong" sounds the drum, implying "not completely in the middle..."; the interpretation error is not hit.
For example, the riddle "a thousand gold is difficult to buy a hometown friendship", guess a place name. The guesser must explain the mystery - "A thousand gold refers to money and profit, and the friendship of the country is the friendship of the township." It is difficult to buy hometown friendship, that is, money and profit are not as good as hometown feelings. So the mystery is Liberia. ”
Zhang Zheyuan, former deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Lantern Riddle and representative inheritor of the provincial level of the national intangible cultural heritage Chenghai Lantern Riddle
The riddle cites scriptures and is constantly innovating
The biggest feature of Chenghai Lantern Riddle lies in the word "exquisite". It is really possible to call the guesser "chant a word, twist off a few stems and whiskers". Most of the riddles are taken from classical famous sentences and historical allusions, and the enigmas are a combination of ancient and modern, eclectic.
The ancient literati loved the moon and derived many beautiful images for the moon. For example, "Jade Rabbit" and "Silver Toad" are metaphors for the moon.
Zhang Zheyuan once came up with the riddle "Jade Rabbit Silver Toad (Guess the Time Language)". The mystery is "January 2nd", that is, "two elegant trumpets of a moon", which can be said to be easy to come by and turn life into poetry.
Zhang Zheyuan believes that the Chenghai lantern riddle is traditional in the form of "si drum lead guessing", commanded by drums, the puzzle field is orderly, and the guessing crowd is civilized and polite and emotionally harmonious. This method is also suitable for cultivating the next generation, standing on the sidelines, carefully listening to people guessing and explaining, and gradually getting started, which is equivalent to an "open class". Nowadays, Chenghai lantern riddles are also constantly innovating, grafting new puzzles and developing new riddles.
At present, the creation methods used in Chenghai Lantern Riddle are mainly righteous buckles, sound buckles, pictograms, clutches, other solutions, and dictionaries, etc., and there are hundreds of mysteries, forming a complete creative system that has both local cultural characteristics and national common.
According to public information, in 2000, the Ministry of Culture named Chenghai District as the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Art (Lantern Riddle)". In June 2008, the State Council included "Riddles" (Chenghai Lantern Riddle) in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage expansion projects.
People who follow the tide go to sea and take root in Southeast Asia
Zhang Zheyuan told reporters that Chenghai not only appeared in the grand scene of "riddled with mysteries and mysterious people", but this unique way of guessing spotlight riddles sailed overseas through red-headed boats, followed the footprints of hipsters to spread to southeast Asia, and took root.
In the 1990s, Zhang Zheyuan and Zheng Baichuan went to Thailand and Singapore to participate in the international puzzle art exchange meeting, setting a precedent for the mainland puzzle industry to visit overseas, and was rated as one of the major events in the puzzle world that year.
In Zhang Zheyuan's impression, most of the early thai lantern riddles were "holding bull ears" by The Chenghai people. In Thailand, there is the county of lantern riddles "Tai Needle Chen", and for a long time in the past, the host of the puzzle altar there was almost an overseas Chinese enigma in Chenghai Lianyang Township.
Gao Xiangru of Thailand has a record of the mysteries of Chenghai in the book "Chenghai County Chronicle": to the Lantern Night, the Silver Flower Fire Tree, the Fish Dragon Manyan, the Literati Bachelor, the Hanging Riddle in tongqu, the shooter, the reward with pen and ink, called the lamp guess.
"Didi'er, open the riddle", as long as it sounds, everyone knows that they are going to guess the riddle. Usually before the puzzle begins, everyone will beat the drum first. The "Shang shed gong and drum" developed into the "opening drum ceremony", which was invented by overseas Chinese in Thailand.
The main person in charge of the Chenghai Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese told reporters that the production of the video, in addition to wishing overseas Chinese at home and abroad a happy Lantern Festival, is also to tell the nostalgia and tell the story of Chenghai to the outside world. The development of Chenghai Lantern Riddle overseas has made positive contributions to promoting the spread of Chinese culture overseas.
[Reporter] Shen Congsheng
【Video】Produced by Chenghai District Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese
【Author】 Shen Congsheng
Southern Probe
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