When did crossword puzzles appear?

The earliest crossword puzzles originated in the Han and Wei Dynasties. Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long Zangpian" said: "Since the Wei Dynasty, it is not a pity, but a gentleman laughed and turned into a riddle." Liu Xie said that riddles originated in the Wei and Jin Dynasties because the literati at that time created many independent and complete crossword puzzles.

The role of crossword puzzles in history mainly serves politics, politics, diplomacy and military affairs.

The ancient micro-book quoted Xiaoyuan's agreement and said, "Bao Wen went out and Liu Ji held it." Jinmao Road, in the north. "The word' wozi' is suitable for the whole world." "Golden Knife", also known as "Liu"; "Wozi" is called "season". Emperor gaozu liu bang, word season. This prediction was obviously made by Liu Bang, who wanted to unify the whole country and grant the system to the king and the throne.

In diplomatic situations, crossword puzzles are often used as a weapon. The story of the reflection of the Three Kingdoms, Wu Shu Xue Zong: When he was on a mission to the State of Wu, he laughed at the name of Kan Ze, a senior minister, with a crossword puzzle in front of Sun Quan. Kan Ze is not good at this and can't answer. Zhang Feng couldn't help feeling smug when he thought that he had lost the face of the people of Wu. At this time, Xue Zong, the minister of Wu, took part in the answer and said, "I have a mystery to ask my husband:' Dogs are Shu without dogs; If you cross the fence, the worm will enter its abdomen. "In this mystery poem, the word' Shu' is everywhere. Zhang Feng felt that the name of this country had been insulted, so he reluctantly replied, "Please compare your country of Wu with this method. "Xue Zong replied:" No mouth is heaven, and the mouth of heaven is the country; King's Landing is the capital of all countries. "So the officer. The members were laughing, and Zhang Feng brought shame and embarrassment to himself.

In military combat, crossword puzzles are often used as contact signals for military operations. During the reign of Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty, Kyrgyzstan and Yangzhou troops were preparing for rebellion, and Pei Yan, the secretariat, was responsible for the coordination within the imperial court. As a result, it was not a secret, but it was leaked. When Chao Ting tried Pei Yan's rebellion case, he only found a letter from Pei Yan to Xu Jingye, in which only the word "Green Goose" was written. At last, Wu Zetian saw through it and said, "This is a code word. Young people,1February; Goose, I am self-sufficient. " It turns out that the word "green" can be divided into three fonts: "December"; The word "goose" can be divided into three words: "yourself and yourself". Pei Yan agreed that Xu Jing will start his career in1February, and he will start from the inside. Since then, Pei Yanfu. Method, rebellion failed.

People and people often use crossword puzzles to fight for weapons when they oppose blockade, establish unity, rule and vent their dissatisfaction. According to the Records of Five Travels in the Later Han Dynasty, Xian Di and Dong Zhuo were in power at the end of the Han Dynasty, subverting the outline of the dynasty, and the fish had hundreds of surnames, which caused strong dissatisfaction among the people and the people. As a result, Beijingers and city dwellers made up nursery rhymes: "A thousand miles, why; Ten days before noon, no birth. In nursery rhymes, the word "Senecio" and the word "Dong" are combined into the word "Zhuo" after ten days of divination. He is green "and" not born "means that Dong Zhuo, despite his great power, can't escape the punishment of the people. This song cleverly curses this overbearing, humiliating and virtuous person.

In ancient times, crossword puzzles were an important part of literary works, including proverbs, poems, novels, plays and various literary works. As early as the beginning of crossword puzzles in Wei, Jin and Northern Dynasties, ancient poems and songs had fully absorbed various forms of crossword puzzles. According to Zhai Hao's "Common Compilation, Knowing Redundancy" in the Qing Dynasty, in the folk songs such as midnight and reading classics in Yuefu in the Six Dynasties, homophony was often used to compare the meaning of poetry. Such as: "Fog dew hibiscus, lotus is not clear." Take "Furong" as "Furong"; Take "lotus" as "pity" (love). "When you look at the trail of a cow at dusk, you know it's a hoofprint." Take "hoof" as "crow" "sunny in the east, rainy in the west, sunny on the road." Take "sunny" as "sentiment". Such mysteries are too numerous to mention. At that time, the literati also suppressed a sense of mystery and created many ancient poems with unique feelings. For example, a clutch poem written by Xie Lingyun, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, said: "The ancients complained about the letter, and the ten days were not finished. Plus, I'm pregnant, and it hurts to talk about feelings. The play is for tourists, don't forget your virginity. " This poem is five words and six sentences, full of sadness of parting. In every two sentences, the words "mouth", "force" and "knife" are implied by separation respectively, and the word "don't" is formed after synthesis. Like this kind of ancient poem, its poem (mystery) accords with mystery and its writing level is extremely high. The way of obscure meaning in ancient poetry is inherited by later poets, because it can gently pour out the poet's feelings and make poetry more implicit and rich. For example, Tang Mengchi's poem "Boudoir Love" said: "There are mountains on the mountain, and there is no return, and the Xiangjiang River is raining." "There is a mountain on the mountain" not only describes the difficulties and obstacles of the journey, but also hides the word "Chu", which gives full play to the expressive force of Chinese characters, just like making the finishing point and adding luster to the whole poem. Su Songshi's "Burning an Open Fire at Night": "Sit and watch the eighteen gongs and pitch the ashes." Using the word "eighteen males" to hide the word "pine" is very clever in personification and also benefits from the separation of crossword puzzles.

Crossword puzzles used in novels and operas often become an important part of the whole story. The legendary novel Xie Xiaoe written by Li Gong of Tang Dynasty tells that Xie Xiaoe's father and fiance were killed by thieves when they went out. That night, Xie Xiaoe saw her father in a dream and said, "Whoever killed me is the monkey in the car." I dreamed that her fiance said, "whoever kills me will walk in the grass and be a husband for a day." These two words imply the names of the murderers "Shen Lan" and "Shen Chun". After Xie Xiaoe solved the mystery, she disguised herself as a man and made an unannounced visit, so she avenged her father's death. This story, which takes crossword puzzles as the main clue to catch the murderer and help solve the case, is very unique and has a unique conception, which opens the way for later crossword puzzles to enter the novel story. In China's traditional drama, crossword puzzles are full of fun. In the Romance of the West Chamber written by Dong Jieyuan in Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Sheng and Yingying made a private appointment to meet each other, so there was a poem of "the bright moon on March 35", in which "March 35" implied the night of the 15th. At this time, Yingying's shyness and shyness in guessing riddles, the matchmaker's panic when he didn't guess the answer, and the joy after seeing Zhang Sheng guess the answer made the whole drama reach a climax.

As elegant music in banquets, entertainment and other gathering occasions. The speed of solving puzzles is a way for the ancients to identify each other's talents. Shi Shuo Xin Yu records that Cao Cao, Emperor Wu of Wei, led an army to pass the Cao E Monument. See the inscription on the tablet: "yellow silk young woman, grandson mortar." So he asked Yang Xiu, the Master Book, "Do you understand?" Yang Xiu replied, "Yes." Wei Wudi said: "Let's not talk about it for the time being, let me think about it." After traveling thirty miles, Wei Wudi said, "I found it." The two of them answered quickly, knowing that "yellow silk" is colored silk, and the combination of "color" and "color" is "unique"; "Young women" are "young" and "women", which together are "wonderful"; "Sun" is the "son" of "female", and when combined, it is "good"; "Nine" is a spicy thing, and the combination of "longevity" and "Xin" is "longevity". The inscription on the stone tablet contains the word "wonderful and good". As soon as this mystery was revealed, I sighed, "I am not as good as Qing, but I feel three miles."

At banquets and other gathering occasions, people often use crossword puzzles instead of drinking, singing and dancing for entertainment, rewarding those who guess correctly and punishing those who don't. Yang Xuanzhi's "Galand in Luoyang" in the Northern Wei Dynasty records that once Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty gave a banquet to entertain his ministers. When the wine is warm, the toast is puzzling: "Who can tell the difference between three and three horizontal and two and two vertical?" . "Three three horizontal lines, two two vertical lines" is a stroke to disassemble the word "feather", "Admiralty" is a wine glass, which was also called "Dabai" in ancient times. The words "feather" and "white" are combined into the word "Xi". This riddle was guessed by King Cheng Peng, which is a very pleasant thing. Gao Yuan Deji's Notes on Hirayama said that Yuan Dalu's flowers were stripped of red and eight thorns, and one day they got together and ordered one casually: "A word has four words and a cross; One word has four crosses, and one word is spoken. " The first two sentences refer to "map" and the last sentence refers to "completion". The puzzle was so difficult that no one here guessed correctly, and everyone was fined a large glass of wine.

The date of construction and revision of ancient monuments and tombs, the name of the owner of the monument, and the age of formation. Whether you know the special expression of crossword puzzles and whether you can accurately decipher ancient crossword puzzles often becomes the key to textual research and identification of ancient books and cultural relics. There was a famous calendar in the Guangwu period of the Eastern Han Dynasty-Yuejue Book. This book doesn't have the author's name, but it is replaced by poetry in the preface. The poem says: "Take going as your surname and getting clothes as your success. There is one meter in the name, which continues with Geng. Yu Donglai, buried in his hometown. If you don't blame yourself, class is self-evident. Wen is a word, and he is a sage of the country. Take the mouth as the surname and carry on the family line. Chu Xiang Qu Yuan, with the same name. " The author of this book has never been known because it doesn't say who wrote it. In the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shen, a great writer, carefully studied the preface of this book, only to know that this book was written by Yuan Kang and Wu Ping of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the original poem, "taking going as the surname and getting clothes as success" alludes to the word "yuan"; "The title of the title has rice, which continues with Geng" is a reference to the word "Kang"; "Yu Dong came and died in his hometown" is the author's self-report that he is a Huiji person. "Take the mouth as the surname, inherit the sky", alluding to the word "Wu"; "Chu Xiang Qu Yuan, the same name" is a metaphor for the word "Ping" (Qu Yuan's name is Ping). With the solution of this mystery, Yuejueshu has been paid more and more attention and become an important historical book to study the history of wuyue during the Warring States Period.

When Xu Xuan, the father of the Southern Tang Dynasty writer, was a county magistrate in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, he dug up a stone tablet of "Xu Qi Temple, Late Han Dynasty" in the county government. The inscription was written by Xu Shao, a famous scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, commenting that Cao Cao was a "traitor in troubled times". The inscription is gorgeous and full of momentum, but the last eight words, "When you finish the ceremony, count seven in the main field", I don't know what it means. It took Xu a long time to guess that these eight words were a mystery, meaning "Restoration of Xu Bei". It turned out that the inscriptions on Xu Qi's tomb were eroded by wind and rain. By the Tang Dynasty, the inscriptions had all been eroded and blurred. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, when the Xu descendants were repairing the tomb, they re-engraved the original tablet and added these eight words. "Talking about horses" means "Xu"; "Libi" refers to the word "monument"; "Main field" means "heavy"; Counting to seven means standing. If you don't know the meaning of "after saying Ma Li, the main field counts seven", then you will mistake the stone tablets re-carved in the Tang Dynasty for those of the Han Dynasty.

Ancient crossword puzzles were also used to measure characters, draw lots, match fate, interpret dreams and predict things. These are all beneficial. They are used to confuse and deceive people by grasping Chinese characters. Notes on Song Cai's Talk about Tiewei Mountain: During the period of Song Huizong, Xie Shi, a native of Chengdu, was famous for his fortune telling and predicting people's fate. One day, Song Huizong asked the Prince of the East Palace to write a word "Tai" and asked Xie Shi to calculate it. Xie Shi knew about this for a long time. When he saw this word, he pretended to be surprised and said, "This word has the style of a son of heaven! The point below the word' too' is written longer, just like a horizontal line. " If you move this over the word "big", isn't that the word "heaven" of the son of heaven? "This method of changing characters by strokes is widely used in the life stage.

The earliest crossword puzzles originated in the Han and Wei Dynasties. Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long Hidden Chapter" said: "Since the Wei Dynasty, it has not been condescending, but the gentleman laughed and turned into a riddle." Liu Xie said that riddles originated in the Wei and Jin Dynasties because scholars at that time created many unique and complete crossword puzzles. For example, a poem named "Li Hezuo County" written by Kong Rong, a great writer at that time, has four words in each sentence, and every four or two sentences refer to one word. The whole poem is twenty-two sentences long, * * * eighty-eight. The full text is as follows:

Fishermen bend over and water hides; Keep pace with the times and leave the temple. Lv Gong Loki hook, lower mouth; The nine realms are sacred, and no soil is king. Goodness is integrity, and women belong to Kuang; There are herrings overseas, and falcons fly. Six purlins will be excited, but the feather instrument is not obvious; The sting of the dragon and snake makes it forget "(Kong Rong's Ci). Kong Rong's "Poems of Separation" is recognized as the earliest complete and mature crossword puzzle in China. In this period, in addition to the form of poetry, people often use objects other than language to express the mystery of words in a hidden way. According to Shi Shuo Xin Yu Wu Jie, when Yang Xiu was the editor-in-chief, he built a state house for Cao Cao. When the roof truss was first built, Cao Cao came out to inspect it, which was quite unpleasant. So he wrote a word "live" on the door of Guo Xiang Mansion and left without saying a word. As soon as Yang Xiu saw this word, he had the door of the Prime Minister's Office torn down and repaired. He said: "The word' wide' is added to the' door'. Wang Wei is too big. "After the story spread, Cao Cao's clever riddle guessing and Yang Xiu's riddle guessing victory were all described as beautiful stories by people at that time. In the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, crossword puzzles became popular. Many scholars and celebrities like crossword puzzles and think it is elegant music. Pan Yue of Jin Dynasty, Xie Lingyun, Xie Huilian and Bao Zhao of Song Dynasty, Wang Rong of Qi State, Xiao Xunzhi of Liang State, Chen Shenjiong, etc. , have made many gripper and crossword puzzles similar to Kong Rong's. Of course, from the perspective of the jigsaw puzzle making skills in this period, there has been great development. Many methods such as pictographic characters, metaphor, cognition, and the culture of names and things are also mixed in the side of words, which has a positive impact on later crossword puzzles.

In the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, riddles and riddles were very popular. Crossword puzzles are no longer limited to scribes, but have penetrated into every corner of social life. Various traces left by crossword puzzles can be found in nursery rhymes, Fu Rui's divination, inscriptions, seal script, novel notes, acrobatic skills and wine argot. From emperors and generals to gentry, they all take mystery as fun and play with it, and they compete for speculation, which has become a temporary trend. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, crossword puzzles and crossword puzzles were also regarded as a skill, and some people could make a living by doing it. The best of them will be famous all over the world and will remain immortal. Song and Wu's "Dream Novel Telling History" notes: "Businessmen should congratulate them with drums first. Then gather people to guess poetry riddles, word riddles, crime riddles and social riddles, all of which are code words. " ..... Hang Zhi's riddle, say a word or two. If anyone goes back to the monk and Ma Dingzhai, remember to ask Bo Qia, who has long been famous. "This just shows the popularity of crossword puzzles at that time and people's respect for people who can do crossword puzzles and crossword puzzles.

Modern crossword puzzles are developed on the basis of ancient crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles, an ancient traditional cultural and recreational activity, have been reborn and developed vigorously after being solved and released. This kind of "advanced riddle", which has always been appreciated and tasted by only a few literati, has appeared constantly in various organized collective activities, and has developed to an unprecedented stage in both form and content, playing an increasingly important role in enriching people's cultural life and cultivating people's sentiments.