燈不點不亮—Keys to the riddles (Xiehouyu)

Well, it’s Lantern Festival today. And all the lanterns are supposed to be lit up tonight. The act of lighting up a lantern is called 點燈(dian3 deng) We have a xiehouyu related to this, which is my title today. 燈不點不亮(deng bu4 dian3 bu2 liang4), if you don’t light up a lantern, you won’t get illuminated. It’s the same if you don’t speak up your mind. So the latter part of this Xiehouyu will be 話不說不明(hua4 bu4 shou bu4 ming2)

I use the title because yesterday I left you some riddles to solve, and now I’m giving the keys, which is like lighting up a lantern for you, which is something proper to do today.

Part I: Each of the following questions has a key of a Chinese

        character.

1.  Woman → 好(hao3), good

好 is a combination of 女(nu3) and 子(zi3), 女子 refers to women, Contrary to 男子(nan2 zi3), man.

2. Three women. → 姦(jian) adultery or rape

  While 女子 means good, three women put together won’t be anything good. It means adultery in 通姦(tong jian), or rape in 強姦(qiang2 jian)

3. Fifteen persons → 傘(san3), umbrella

The word is made up of a 十(shi2), ten, and five 人(ren), person.  Put them all together makes 15 persons.

4. Two woods → 林(lin2), woods, also a common family name

  When a person with 林Lin as his family name, he often introduces himself as 雙木林(shang mu4 lin2), double woods.

  You can say 松木林(song mu4 ling2) or 松林to refer to pine woods.

5. Three woods. → 森(sen), forest

  森 is often put together with 林 as 森林(san lin2) to mean a forest. It means stern or strongly fortified as in 戒備森嚴(Jie4 bei4 sen yan2)

6. A rabbit without its tail. → 免(mian3), exempt, relieve, avoid

  Delete the “、” in rabbit 兔(tu), you get the word 免

  It means to exempt as in 免服兵役(mian3 fu2 bing yi4), to be exempted from military service

7. A king gets a tail. → 玉(yu4), jade

  Add a “、” to 王(wong2), king, you get a 玉, jade.

8. Two worms under the spring. →蠢(chun3), stupid, silly

  The word 蠢 is a 春, spring plus with two 虫(hui3), worm.

  It is often put together with 愚(yu2) as 愚蠢(yu2 chun3), stupid.

9. A bird by the river. → 鴻(hong2) , a species of bird, or big

  The left part of the word is 江, a river, and the right is 鳥, bird, which tells you it’s a kind of bird. But it also means big. Besides “揚眉兔氣(yiang2 mei2 tu4 qi4)” as I put in my previous writing, another phrase you keep hearing these days would be 鴻兔大展(hong2 tu4 da4 zhan3) from 鴻圖大展(hong2 tu2 da4 zhan3), which means to have a big and prosperous career.

10. It keeps raining in the spring and the widow is alone at home. →一(yi), one

 (Hint: Start with the word spring 春(chun) Delete parts of it according to the riddle and you get a simple word.)

 This is another type of riddle, which you delete parts of a word according to the hint. In this one, we use the word 春as in 春雨(chun yu3) spring rain. Since it’s raining, there won’t be the sun, 日(ri4)  We first delete the 日 from the word. Then a widow is someone without husband, which is 夫(fu) Delete the 夫 and the only thing left is 一, one.

Part II: Guess the latter part of the following Xiehouyu.

1.  寡婦死了兒子(gua3 fu4 si3 le er2 zi3) A widow is bereaved of her son. → 沒指望(mei2 zhi3 wong4), hopeless

In the past, a woman depended on her husband for her life, or her son if she was widowed. For a widow, if she was bereaved of her only son, there wouldn’t be any hope for her. She was totally on her own.

2.  廁所裡的石頭( ce4 suo3 li3 de shi2 tou2)A stone in the toilet.

  → 又臭又硬(you4 chou4 you4 ying4), stinky and hard

  Unlike modern bathroom, toilets in the past were stinky. A stone in the toilet would no wonder be stinky and hard. This is used to refer to someone who is stubborn and difficult to get along with.

3.   豬八戒照鏡子(zhu ba jie4 zhao4 jing zi3)  Zhu ba jie looks into the mirror. (This one I’ve mentioned in my previous writing with the same title.) → 裡外不是人(li3 wai4 bu3 shi4 ren2), 
    When Ahu ba jie, a pig, looks into the mirror, he won’t see any reflection of a person. This is used to describe the difficult situation someone is stuck in when he can please no one by taking any side.
4. 大姑娘上花轎(da4 gu niang2 shang4 hua jiao4) A young lad gets on 花轎, a wheelless man-power transport for the bride.

 → 頭一遭(tou2 yi4 zao), for the first time

 In traditional Chinese wedding, 花轎 was used for taking the bride from her mother’s home to the husband’s, but only for her first marriage, not for those remarried. As a result, for any bride to get on花轎, it would be her first time.

If you ask me anything about blgging, I’ll say I don’t know much because for me, it’s 大姑娘上花轎

5.  外甥打燈籠(wai4 sheng da3 deng long2)  A nephew handles a lantern. 照舊(舅)(zhao4 jiu4), as usual, nothing has changed

When a nephew handles a lantern, it would be for his uncle on his mother’s side,舅  And the uncle will be illuminated 照. 舊, usual, old, sounds the same as 舅, thus makes the phrase照舊. For example, if you ask how I celebrated this Chinese New Year, I’ll say外甥打燈籠. We ate and cooked and played Majung with family as what we did in the past.

燈不點不亮=灯不点不亮

通姦=通奸

傘=伞

雙木林=双木林

戒備森嚴=戒备森严

鴻圖大展=鸿图大展

寡婦死了兒子=寡妇死了儿子

廁所裡的石頭=厕所里的石头

豬八戒照鏡子=猪八戒照镜子

大姑娘上花轎=大姑娘上花轿

外甥打燈籠=外甥打灯笼