Lantern riddles first developed from riddles and originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. This is a literary game full of ridicule, discipline, humor and banter. Lantern riddles hung on lanterns for people to guess and shoot began in the Southern Song Dynasty. "Old Things in Wulin: Lights" records: "Poems with silk lanterns are meant to ridicule, while characters are drawn, and old Beijing slang is hidden to ridicule pedestrians". On the Lantern Festival, the imperial city stays up all night, and there are many people watching lights in spring night. Poems and riddles are written on lanterns, reflected on candles and listed on the road, which makes people guess, so they are called "riddles". Solve riddles on the lanterns became a riddle, and there is an interesting story.

According to legend, a long time ago, there was a rich man named a smiling tiger. When you meet a well-dressed man, you try your best to curry favor with him; Seeing the poor man in rags, he blew his beard and stared. There was a young man named Wang Shao. Once when he went to borrow food, he was thrown out of the door because of his rags. Wang Shao became more and more angry when he went back. On the night of Lantern Festival, I tied a big lantern and came to the front of the smiling tiger's house. This big lantern is engraved with a poem. Looking forward, the smiling tiger saw the words: the head is as white as silver. It is said that there is no money; Eyes up to the bottom, only clothes, not people.

After reading it, the smiling tiger flushed with anger and flew into a rage, shouting, "Good boy, how dare you scold your master." Then he ordered the servant to get the lantern. Wang Shao hurriedly picked up the lantern and said with a smile, "Hey, master, don't be suspicious. My four poems are a mystery, and the answer is' needle'. Think about it. How is this' needle' for you? " Did the needle tell you? How else would you know it was you? "A smiling tiger thought, yes, so he just glared angrily and left, and everyone around him laughed happily.

After the story spread, it spread further and further. In the second year of Lantern Festival, people followed suit and wrote riddles on lanterns for people to guess and shoot for fun. So it's called "lantern riddle". Since then, solve riddles on the lanterns has become an important activity of the Lantern Festival. There are several chapters in A Dream of Red Mansions that describe the scenes of Qing people and solve riddles on lanterns. Lantern riddles have been passed down to this day. Although Spring Lantern Riddle belongs to the literary trail, it covers all aspects from astronomy to geography, classics to history and modern knowledge. Unless you have a certain cultural literacy, it is not easy to guess. And its mystery is enough to express one's feelings, exercise one's thinking and inspire one's spirit. This is an educational entertainment.