中国民间谜语的源流特征与文化价值

Chinese Folk Riddles: The Origin & Development Characteristics and Cultural Value

民间谜语是人类口头的语言游戏活动之一,它采用暗射事物或者文字的方式供人猜测。与灯谜不同,它虽起源很早,但一直处于被忽视的境地。它萌芽于春秋时期,宋以前主要是影射政治和社会情况,之后逐渐成为全民游戏的一种。两宋时期商谜和灯谜发展迅速,明代开始有了成熟的民间谜语,清代谜语则在前代基础上有了较大的发展。现当代,伴随着民俗学科的兴起,民间谜语的搜集整理工作初见成效。在艺术特色上,民间谜语具有表现手法丰富、语言形式多样、内容构思精巧的特点,因此受到民众的喜爱而得以广泛传播。从文化价值看,作为一种语言游戏,民间谜语具有丰富的趣味性和知识性,不仅可以启迪民众智慧、训练人们的思维能力,还能丰富人们日常生活、开阔人们的眼界。民间谜语本身包含的各种知识也是地域文化的承载、民众集体记忆的表达,具有丰富的社会文化价值。

As one of the spoken language activities of human beings,folk riddles are often presented by means of allusions or words for people to guess. Unlike lantern riddles,folk riddles originated very early,but they have been neglected for a long time. Folk riddles began to germinate in the Spring and Autumn Period. Before the Song Dynasty,they were mainly used to insinuate political and social situations,and later became a national game gradually. During the Song Dynasty, business riddles and lantern riddles developed rapidly, while folk riddles did not mature until the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty witnessed a great development of riddles based on the achievements in previous generations. Nowadays, with the rise of folklore studies, the collection and collation of folk riddles has achieved initial success. In terms of artistic features, folk riddles are characterized by different expression techniques,diverse language forms, and ingenious conception, so they are popular among the public, thereby widely spreading. In terms of cultural value, folk riddles, as a language game, boast rich interest and knowledge, which could not only enlighten people’s wisdom, train their thinking ability, but also enrich their daily life and broaden their horizons. More importantly, the various knowledge contained in folk riddles is also the carrier of regional culture and expression of people’s common memory, which has great social and cultural value.