Original link: https://sanguok.com/blog/a-book-of-dialect-riddles-brings-back-memories/
Recently, a group of friends shared a collection of Fuzhou dialect riddles, a manuscript of the sixth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.
When I was in high school, there were old teachers who tied the red thread to the tree and posted riddles on the line during the tour of the club, and asked everyone to come to ” quasi riddles ” (meaning guessing riddles in Fuzhou dialect). Gifts are also perfect for us, and intellectual challenges are always not to be missed by children of this age. It’s just that the answers are very biased, and many of them are estimated to be hanging for more than ten years. If you want to ” code ” and search on the Internet, it is estimated that you will not be able to find the answer. For many riddles, it is necessary to combine the pronunciation of Fuzhou dialect and even the way of thinking to get the answer. Maybe this is the humor and self-entertainment of the old Fuzhou people.
At that time, I thought I had guessed the answer, so I found the teacher to report it. The teacher asked me for the number: “There are too many riddles, you have to report the number.” I ran back and recorded the number. The teacher took out a nearly torn manuscript, took out the pen holder to locate the number, and then shook his head at me. Maybe none of this anagram has been guessed correctly over the years? I couldn’t help but think so.
Of course someone got it right. I saw him surrounded by a group of people, walked to the teacher’s booth, reported the number and the answer. The teacher ticked the number, then looked up at him, and lifted the frame. A burst of cheers. The surrounding classmates who were not aware of the situation thought what happened, so they gathered around and guessed the riddle with great interest. I couldn’t help but think jealously: maybe the teacher asked him to do it, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to attract more people, and he also earned gifts and envious eyes.
Another time, a classmate found me mysteriously and said that a senior sister gave him a mystery, but he was embarrassed to go alone. I will accompany him. He confidently reported the number and the answer, and the teacher took out the pen holder to locate a number that had already been checked. And the handwriting of this hook is not new, and it has been scratched by the pen. The teacher looked up at the classmate, he understood what was happening, blushed and dragged me away. Maybe in the high school campus, there are some answers that are like ghosts, and they are passed down by the locals every session, so that they can trick the new “destined people”. Whether this classmate later used this old mystery to deceive the next class of schoolgirls is unknown.
Looking at this manuscript of riddles, I suddenly remembered these past events, as well as the red thread, the mango tree, and the friendly local accent. I don’t have any special feelings for the red thread. The mango tree sometimes even thinks its rotten fruit is smelly. To me, the local accent is colorless and tasteless. But when they are intertwined in my memory, they leave me with a dreamlike situation, and there is no room for logic and argument to participate. People always ask for rationality from liking, but in fact liking is just a spark when we pass by with the people, things around us, and the world.
This article is reprinted from: https://sanguok.com/blog/a-book-of-dialect-riddles-brings-back-memories/
This site is for inclusion only, and the copyright belongs to the original author.