A Song dynasty night street lined with hundreds of glowing paper lanterns, crowds reflected in wet stone.

Song Dynasty960–1279 CEIntermediatePro中文PinyinHSK 3.0

The Lantern Festival

元宵灯会Yuán Xiāo Dēng Huì

Solve a lantern riddle and you will understand how Chinese puns work forever.

The scene

The curfew has been lifted for three nights and the whole city is outdoors. Lanterns are strung the length of the street, every one of them with a riddle pasted to the frame, and the woman who made half of them is watching to see whether you can solve hers.

What you will be able to do

Understand how homophones create Chinese wordplay
Name colours, shapes and materials
Ask someone to explain a joke you did not get

Who you will be talking to

1 character

Portrait of Zhao Qiaoyun, a Song dynasty lantern maker, holding a finished rabbit-shaped lantern that glows from within.

赵巧云

Zhào Qiǎoyún

Lantern maker of Bianjing · mid-thirties

Runs a lantern workshop that her mother ran before her, and works flat out for a month before every Lantern Festival. She paints as much as she builds, and hides a riddle inside every lantern she sells — some easy, some not fair at all.

mischievousproud of her craftsuperstitiousgenerous

小心！那盏灯刚糊好。你是来看灯的，还是来猜谜的？
Xiǎoxīn! Nà zhǎn dēng gāng hú hǎo. Nǐ shì lái kàn dēng de, háishì lái cāi mí de?
Careful! That lantern was just pasted. Have you come to see the lanterns, or to solve a riddle?

Words you will use

8 · Pinyin and HSK 3.0

灯dēng
lantern; lampnounHSK 2
谜语mí yǔ
riddlenounHSK 5
猜cāi
to guessverbHSK 4
亮liàng
bright; litadjectiveHSK 2
红色hóng sè
rednounHSK 2
Literally: red + colour
汤圆tāng yuán
glutinous rice ballsnounHSK 4
Literally: soup + round
Eaten at the Lantern Festival. The round shape means 团圆 tuányuán, family reunion.
团圆tuán yuán
reunion; to come togetherverbHSK 5
热闹rè nao
lively; bustlingadjectiveHSK 3
Literally: hot + noisy
The highest compliment a Chinese crowd can receive. Never means 'too loud'.

What is going on here

3 culture notes

CustomSurprising

Three nights without a curfew

The Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, was the one time of year the Song city stayed open all night. Bianjing's curfew was suspended for three days and the gates were left unlocked.

LanguageSurprising

灯谜 — riddles that live on lanterns

A lantern riddle turns on a pun, a split character or a classical allusion. The answer is often hidden in how the words sound rather than what they mean, which makes them an unusually good workout for a language learner.

Belief

Round things mean reunion

汤圆 are sticky rice balls in warm syrup. Their shape, 圆, is a homophone for completion and reunion — so the food itself carries the wish. The same logic runs through mooncakes, wedding dates and the number of dishes at a banquet.

The scripted path

1 authored dialogue

The Riddle on the Lantern

Zhao Qiaoyun has pasted a riddle to every lantern she made. Solve the one she hands you, and she will show you why a round rice ball is the same word as a family reunion.

12 turns · ~16 min

Them
小心！那盏红灯刚糊好，别碰。这条街上的灯，一半是我做的。
Xiǎoxīn! Nà zhǎn hóng dēng gāng hú hǎo, bié pèng. Zhè tiáo jiē shàng de dēng, yí bàn shì wǒ zuò de.
Careful! That red lantern was just pasted — don't touch it. Half the lanterns on this street are mine.
You
对不起！这些灯真亮，街上真热闹。
Duìbuqǐ! Zhèxiē dēng zhēn liàng, jiē shàng zhēn rènao.
Sorry! These lanterns are so bright, and the street is so lively.
Them
每个灯上都有一张谜语。猜对了，才送你。
Měi gè dēng shàng dōu yǒu yì zhāng míyǔ. Cāi duì le, cái sòng nǐ.
Every lantern has a riddle pasted to it. Guess it right, and only then do I give it to you.
You
好！我来猜。谜语是什么？
Hǎo! Wǒ lái cāi. Míyǔ shì shénme?
All right! Let me guess. What is the riddle?
8 more turns, with grammar notes attached to the line where each one matters.