One Great Way To Learn Chinese... As I was reading someone's Chinese essay, someone posed a Chinese riddle to challenge readers in guessing an object. That sent the dust in the corridors of my mind flying. I remembered my childhood pastime entertainment... Guessing Chinese riddles, not about guessing objects but Chinese characters. There are two ways of approaching this delightful mind exercise. From the given clues, one either constructs or deconstructs the character or characters until the answer is found. The answer may be a single character or a phrase. For example, 18 sons becomes the surname of Li. 十八子 -> 李. You get the idea. Deconstruction is going the other way. The elaborate ones may be posed in poetry and employs both ways at the same time. Without further ado, let the riddles begin :) Starting with easier ones first. For those who does not know traditional characters, these riddles may be difficult to them to solve. One thing about simplified forms, they lack the beauty of traditional ones to enjoy such gems... 蟲入鳳中飛去鳥, 七人頭上一把草. 朋友半邊不見了, 大雨落在橫山上, Guess a phrase. 留頭金刀 1 character 西家有隻狗 追到唔見走, 走到市塲上, 一點不見了. 1 character 一家七口, 種着一畝田, 家中不够食, 總養一隻狗! 1 character 春夜妻獨然 1 character.