The "jokes" spoken in general are quite wide-ranging, and generally include two categories: satire and humor. Why jokes make people laugh, this is a psychological problem, I have no research, can not say a little why. Bergson had a book called Laughter, which I hadn't read. A lot of jokes have to do with words, so I'll talk about that. I have taken materials from three books: Zhou Qiming's Edition: Four Kinds of Ming and Qing Jokes, 1983 Second Edition; Wang Liqi's Compilation: Collection of Jokes of Past Dynasties, First Edition 1956; Ren Erbei's Compilation: "Youyu Collection", first edition in 1981. In the notes, Zhou, Wang, and Ren are used respectively.
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Green glaze joins the army figurines
The eleventh year of The Tang Dynasty (723 AD)
Joining the army was a popular form of opera in the Tang Dynasty
Mainly based on the performance of two people, one question and one answer, witty laughter
It is now in the collection of the National Museum of China
Let me start with a famous example. During the reign of Emperor Yizong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a "youren" (equivalent to a foreign fool) named Li Keji, who was the most able to tell jokes. Once to celebrate the emperor's birthday, the monk And Taoist priest finished preaching, and Li Keji, dressed in Confucian clothes, ascended to the podium and called himself "The Balance of The Three Religions." A man sat next to him and asked, "Since you have learned the Three Teachings, I ask you, who is Shakya Rulai?" Lee said, "Woman." The man next to him was taken aback and said, "How is it a woman?" Li Keji said: "In the Diamond Sutra, it is said, 'Sit on a seat', if it is not a woman, why should the husband sit and then sit down?" Then he asked, "Who is Taishang Laojun?" He replied, "It's also a woman." "The person who asked didn't understand anymore. Li Keji said: "In the Tao Te Ching, it is said, 'I have great troubles, and I have a body; and I have no body, so why should I suffer?'" If it is not a woman, why are you afraid of being pregnant? Then he asked, "Who is Confucius?" He replied, "It's also a woman." Asked, "Why?" He replied, "The Analects say, 'Gu Zhi Zhao! Sell it! I treat Jia also. If it is not a woman, why wait to marry someone? ”
This joke consists of three parts, the first of which uses the homophones of "shi" and "fu", and the homophony of "and" and "er" (Tang Dynasty women call themselves "children"). The second part makes use of two interpretations of "having a body," namely ambiguity. The third part uses the two pronunciations of the word "Jia", that is, deliberately pronouncing the white character, which should have been pronounced gǔ, but pronounced it as jiǎ (this is the present sound, but the two sounds of the Tang Dynasty are also different).
Many jokes use homophones, the so-called harmonic sounds. Harmonics tend to use ready-made sentences. For example:
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a Taoist priest Cheng Zixiao who ascended Mount Hua and fell on the road. A Yuwen Han, who was a Lang Zhongguan, wrote to him jokingly, saying: "I don't know if I can get up, and I can't get it, and I can't hang it again." Here is a paraphrase of Lao Tzu: "Virtue is not virtuous, but there is virtue" and "Xuanzhi and Xuan, the door of all wonders". "Lao Tzu" is a Taoist classic, and the letter to the Taoist priest paraphrases "Lao Tzu" is very wonderful.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Song, Tong Guan led his troops to "retake" Yanjing and fled back after a defeated battle. One day in the palace, there were three maids, and the hairs of the combs were different. The head of a comb is in front, saying that it is from Master Cai's house. The second combed beard was next to it, saying that it was zheng Dazai's family. The third one, full of beards, said to be from the tong dawang family. Asked why they combed it so much, the Cai family said, "Our taishi often meets the emperor, and my beard is called Chaotian Bun." The Zheng family said, "We Dazai have already told the old man, and my beard is called lazy comb bun." The Tong family said, "Our great king is fighting with soldiers, and I have thirty-six buns." This is a "meter" with a "bun". "Thirty-six counts, walking is the upper count" is an idiom handed down from the Southern Dynasty Qi.
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Anon. "Miscellaneous Drama (Playing Flower Drum) Diagram" page
Color on silk, Southern Song Dynasty, 24 x 24.3 cm
Song miscellaneous opera is a collective name for various songs, dances and miscellaneous operas in the Song Dynasty
It combines elements of song and dance, music, laughter, and acrobatics
It is now in the Palace Museum
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing soldiers entered the South of guannan, and Qian Muzhai, who was a great scholar at that time and a high official in the Ming Dynasty, wore Qing Dynasty clothes and hats to meet the surrender. On the way, I met an old man who tapped him on the head with a crutch and said, "I am sentimental and sick, and I beat you with a hat that has fallen into the country." These two sentences are paraphrased from the fourth fold of the first book of the "West Chamber", "The boy is sentimental and sick, how can he fall into the country and fall into the city". "Hat" is homophonous with "appearance". The word "appearance" was replaced by the word "hat", and even the meaning of "pouring the country into the city" was changed, from a metaphor to a real finger.
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Edited by Ye Gongqiu and illustrated by Yang Pengqiu
"Qian Qianyi" in the second episode of "The Biography of qing dynasty scholars"
Qian Qianyi (1582-1664), number Muzhai, one of the three great masters of Jiangzuo
It is now in the collection of the National Museum of China
Jokes use harmonic sounds, sometimes revealing dialect sounds. For example:
There was a private school teacher who taught students to read "University", first read Zhu Xi's "Order of University Chapters and Sentences", read the broken sentence, and read "The book of the university, the ancient university so the method of teaching people" also read "the university, the ancient book, the university so the ,...... of teaching people.". Let the king of Yama know, and ask the little devil to hook him up, saying, "You love the word 'Zi' so much, I will punish you for being a pig in the next life." The man said as he was leaving, "You made me a pig, and I dare not disobey, but I have a request: Let me be born in the South." The king of Yama asked him why, and he said, "In the book of the Mean, it is said: 'The southern pig is stronger than the northern pig.'" (Press: The original text of "Zhongyong" is: Zilu asked Qiang, Zi Yue: "The strength of the South?") The Mighty North? Or is it strong? The key to this joke is to harmonize the word "pig" with the word "zigzag", which is the pronunciation of some Wu dialects and would not be laughed at in other regions.
There was a wang monk in Suzhou, because his brother became an official, he still married his wife and treated people with pride. One day at a banquet, other guests colluded with the actor to complete him. In the play, there is a class starter who is dressed in rags, and others ask: "You are very smart in class, why are you still so poor?" According to the lines in the script, the answer of the class starter was: "The Yellow River still has a clarification day, can no one have luck?" The actor deliberately said: "It was said by the ancients that it was absolutely forbidden, what is said is: The king monk has a date of becoming a parent, and the people who start classes have no luck." The guests laughed, and the monk fled quickly. This is also the use of "Huang" and "Wang" homophony in Suzhou dialect, "pro" and "Qing" homophony. (Since the change of word is homophonous with the original word, the difference is probably in the segmentation of intonation, the original word is 2, 2, 3, and the change word is 3, 1, 3.) Moreover, the original sentence has a source: "Wu Yue Bei Shi" said that the poet Luo Yin defected to Wu Yue and was seriously ill, and the king of Wu Yue, Qian Wei, went to see him and inscribed two poems on the bedroom wall: "The Yellow River Letter has a clarification day, and future generations should not succeed in this talent." ”
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Liang Kai's "Budai Monk Diagram"
Color on silk, Southern Song Dynasty, 31.3 x 24 cm
It is now in the collection of the Shanghai Museum
Sometimes, different phonetic meanings of tongkans are used. For example, the original meaning of the word "say" is to speak, and it is connected with the word "yue", and "yue" is often written as "say" in ancient books. During the Ming Dynasty,000 years, Zhang Juzheng was the prime minister, and did not let the Ke Dao officials raise objections--Ke Dao pointed out to Shi Zhong and Yu Shi, both so-called yan officials. Someone made up a joke to satirize him. Saying that there was a deficiency in the Ke Dao official, the official Wen Xuan Si Langzhong asked Zhang Juzheng for instructions, and Zhang Juzheng said: "The most rare and appropriate person for the Ke Dao official, even a few of the big disciples under Confucius may not be in the same style. Lang Zhong said, "Yan Hui's virtue is good, can he use it?" Zhang Juzheng said: "In the Analects, it is said that Yan Hui listened to Confucius's words, and did not say a word, and could not be used. Lang Zhong said: "Zixia literature is good, can it be used?" Zhang Juzheng said: "Confucius said that Zixia this person, listening to my preaching, he also said, go out to see the bustling world he also said, can not be used." Lang Zhong said, "How about Ran Qiu being able to do things?" Zhang Juzheng said: "Confucius said, Ran Qiu, I didn't say what I said, he can't use it." Lang Zhong said, "Zilu is okay with this person, but I am afraid that he is too reckless." Zhang Juzheng said: "Confucius went to see Lady Nanzi, Zilu did not say, this person can be assured of use." ”
There was a private school teacher who taught the students to read "University", read "Yu Before the Play, the King Did Not Forget", and pronounced the word "Yu Drama" according to the commonly used characters. The student's parents told him that it should be read as "Woohoo". In the winter, when teaching students to read the Analects, there is a sentence in the commentary that reads", "Although the ancient ritual is close to the play", the teacher reads "Yu xi" as "woohoo". The parents of the students said that this was "yu drama". The teacher was very angry, complained in front of his friend, and said: "This owner is really difficult to serve, just the word 'yu drama', from the beginning of the year to me to the end of the year." ”
Joke makers also often make up glyphs, mainly to break words. Here are three examples.
Guo Zhongshu, the Song Dynasty Guozijian doctor, ridiculed Nie Chongyi, the guozi supervisor, and said: "Nearly gui is all deaf, and climbing the dragon is deaf, although three ears, its nai is not congunciation." Nie Chongyi replied, "Mo Xiao has three ears, and he is better than the two hearts of the animals." ”
Jiao Fang's face was black and long, much like a donkey's face. When he was not yet promoted, one day he said to his colleague Li Dongyang: "You are good at meeting, please show me." Li Dongyang looked at it for half a day and said, "Your face, the left half is like Ma Shangshu, and the right half is like Lu Shilang, and in the future you will also want to be such a big official as them." The left "盧" right of the "horse" is the word "donkey."
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Anon. "Ten Years of The Same Year" Volume (Partial)
Color on silk, bright, 48.5 x 257 cm
It depicts ten of his courtiers who were also Koshenko jinshi
The scene of The meeting in the sixteenth year of Koji's reign in Min Jue Province
The man in red was Jiao Fang, the left attendant of the official department
It is now in the Palace Museum
The Qing Dynasty had a pingshu who served as an official and a waiter. He once did Jiangsu Xuezheng, engaged in corruption, and had a very bad reputation. Someone made up a play called "Ganru", and the opening sentence was: "Forget the eight, lose your heart, and do the same under the official." "Everyone watching the show laughed." "Dry" is the word "ping" to remove "eight", "such as" is the word "forgive" to remove "heart". The scholar was later consulted by the governor and was ordered to be dismissed from his post and died in the army.
The first one is just a general joke, the second one is a bit unbearable, and the last one is pointing at the nose and scolding - probably the adult is not present, otherwise the actor is not so bold.
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Qiu Ying's "Linsong People's Album" of "Village Children's Noisy Learning Map"
Color on silk, bright, 27.2 x 25.5 cm
It is now in the collection of the Shanghai Museum
In addition to word breaking, the white character is often used to make up jokes. Take an example of an era that has been quite early — the Song Dynasty — that has become an allusion. Legend has it that a reader passed by a private school on the road and heard the teacher inside teaching the students to read "All are flat and I", and went in to correct it. After the news spread, someone made up a slip of the tongue: "All of them are flat with me, and the students are sitting in the hall; they are depressed and literary, and the students are not coming." At that time, there was a literati Cao Yuan's pet Cao Group, who once inscribed a poem on a "Village School Map": "This old fang is a viper, and the flock of chicks is fighting for fire, and if they want to be a teaching room, they all calm me." ”
In terms of semantics, the first is to take advantage of the ambiguity of certain words. For example:
There was a man who did a small business, and his son became an official, and he became an old fief. One day he went to see the county magistrate, who asked him to sit down, but he resolutely refused. The county magistrate said, "I am the same year as Ling Lang, and I should be sitting under you." The old man said, "Are you also a dog?" Here are the two meanings of "the same year" being used.
A monk made dozens of loaves, bought a bottle of honey, and ate private food in the house. Before he finished eating, he hid the bread and honey under the bed and told his apprentice, "Show me the bread." The bottle under the bed contained poison, and if you eat it, you will die. After the monk went out, the disciple spread the honey cake and ate it so much that there were only two left. When the monk returned, he saw that the honey had been eaten, and there were only two loaves left, and scolded the disciple, "How do you eat my bread and honey?" The disciple said, "After you went out, I smelled the cake and was so hungry that I couldn't stand it, so I took it to eat, and I was afraid that Master wouldn't spare me, so I ate the poison in the bottle and looked for death. Master scolded, "Why did you eat so much?" The disciple stuffed the remaining two loaves in his mouth and said, "Eat it like this." "The master reached out to beat the apprentice, and the apprentice ran. Here are two meanings of "how": the master asks "how" what means "why", and the disciple deliberately understands "how" as the meaning of "how".
There was a man who revered the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and made statues of three saints. A Taoist priest came and placed the image of Lao Tzu in the middle. A monk came and moved the image of Shakya to the middle. A scholar came and moved the image of Confucius in the middle. The three saints said to each other, "We were all well, but we were moved around by others, and we were all destroyed." Here are the two meanings of the word "moving", moving and moving.
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(Biography) Xiao Zhao's "Three Laughing Pictures of Tiger Creek" (partial)
Color on silk, Southern Song Dynasty, 26 x 37.6 cm
It is now in the national palace museum in Taipei
According to legend, the Eastern Jin Dynasty monk Huiyuan founded the Lotus Society in Lushan, sending people no more than the stream under the mountain, and crossing the stream, the tiger he raised roared endlessly, so it was called Tiger Creek. One day to send the Taoist lu Xiujing, the Confucian Tao Yuanming, talked very happily, did not feel cross the stream, the three people held hands and looked at each other and laughed.
The earliest joke book is said to be the "Laughing Forest" by The Three Kingdoms Wei Handan Chun, which contains a passage that says: The Han Dynasty Situ Cui Lie used Bao Jian as his subordinate official. Bao Jian went back to see him for the first time, afraid of making a mistake in etiquette, and asked the first person to arrive for advice. The man said, "Follow the rituals," which means what the salutatorian says you will do. Bao Jian misunderstood, thinking that he wanted him to follow the praises. When entering the meeting, the one who praises says "worship", he also says "worship"; the one who praises says "in place", and he also says "in place". When he sat down, he forgot to take off his shoes, and when he left, he couldn't find the shoes, and he said "the shoes are on the feet" and he also said "the shoes are on the feet". (Press: English Soft me can also have two meanings, the Low me in the TV show is "talk to me", and the answer to the directions says Follow me, which is "follow me". ）
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Lu Xun's "Ancient Novel Hook Sink" manuscript book shadow
The picture below right shows the first page of "Laughing Forest" in the manuscript
The original book of "Laughing Forest" has been lost, and more than twenty articles exist today
Lu Xun's "Ancient Novel Hook Sink" is relatively complete
Ambiguity can also arise because the structure of a statement can have two kinds of analysis. There was a young blind (commonly known as blind) who fought a lawsuit with someone, and he said that he was blind. The questioner said, "You have a pair of blue and white eyes, how can you say that you are blind?" He replied, "The old man looks at the villain as green and white, and the villain looks at the old man as confused." The original meaning of these two sentences is: you can see me clearly, I can see you clearly. But it can also be understood as: you see, I am innocent; I see, you are confused. This becomes a bold irony.
Some words, written out, with punctuation, there is no ambiguity. "Leave people behind on rainy days and leave no one behind", this is an old joke, needless to say. There is also another one that is often quoted. The Northern Qi you people Asked Dr. Guoxue: "There are seventy-two sages under Confucius's door, how many of them are adults, and how many are not yet adults?" The doctor said, "Not in the book." The stone mover said, "Why not?" Thirty have been crowned, and forty-two have not been crowned. The doctor asked, "Why?" The stone mover said, "In the Analects, it is clearly said, 'Five or six crowned men,' five or six to thirty, 'six or seven virgins,' six seven forty-two, adding up to seventy-two. If this were written as "five or six" and "six or seven," it would be impossible to misinterpret it.
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(Biography) Yan Liben's "Confucius Disciple Diagram" Volume (Partial)
Color on silk, Song, 32.3 x 870 cm cm
Painting Confucius disciples erected statues of fifty-nine people, nameless
From the physical appearance comparison, the first person from the right in the above picture is Confucius
It is now in the capital museum
During the Wu Zetian era of the Tang Dynasty, there was an old rough power Long Xiang doing the Yingzhou Assassination History. On new year's day, someone wrote to him from Chang'an: "I have more feelings in a new year, and I want to think of the same thing." He showed the letter to the other officials in the yamen and said, "There is an edict to change the year name to the first year of Duosen." Everyone laughed, and Quan Longxiang still didn't understand. If there had been a habit of adding a mark next to the proper name at that time, and the word "multi-sense" did not have a proper name, it would not have been misunderstood.
Jokes also often use after-a-break language. Let's take an example of a thousand words. There was a county lieutenant named Feng Baoyi, and one day a guest came, short in stature, with problems with his eyes and a blocked nose. Feng Baoyi laughed at him after resting with the "Thousand Character Text": "The face is heaven and earth Xuan, the nose has the purple of the goose gate, there is no Zuo Dacheng, and He Lao is reckless about the other." The four sentences imply the words "yellow, plug, bright and short".
In another example, a poor scholar wished a friend a happy birthday, could not afford to buy wine, offered a bottle of water, and said, "Gentlemen's friendship is as light as it is." The master replied, "The drunkard's intention is not there." The word "water" and the word "wine" are hidden, respectively.
There is an example of using the previous sentence to imply the next sentence, which can also be regarded as a generalized post-break. Emperor Xiao of Liangyuan was blind in one eye, and when he was the King of Xiangdong, one day when he ascended to a high position and looked far away, an official of his entourage said: "Today it can be said that 'the emperor descended on Beizhu'. Emperor Yuan of Liang said, "You mean 'Eye-rolling and sorrowful', right?" "The "blind" is hemianism. These two sentences are in the Chu Ci Jiu Ge Xiang Lady.
After the break, the words to be said are hidden behind other words, similar to riddles. From a rhetorical point of view, it is relatively synonymous with the aftermath, and there are also quotations in the joke book. For example, there is a poet who composed a poem "Su Shan Fang Is a Matter" Seven Absolutes: "A lone monk returns alone, closes the door and closes the door to cover the firewood." In the middle of the night, the cuckoo xie leopard rules. Also composed "Yong Lao Ru", it is also a poem of seven masterpieces: "Xiucai Xuebo is a student, good to sleep and snoring only loves to sleep; shallow and desolate, there is no scholarship, and the dragon bell decays in the high year." ”
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Li Shida's "Three Tuotu" vertical axis (partial)
Ink on paper, Ming, 78.8 × 30.6 cm
It is now in the Palace Museum
From the perspective of information, not only is there envy information in this synonymous repetition, but there is also envy information in general speech. For example, there is a show that buys firewood and says, "The bearers come over." The person who sold firewood was so easy to understand the word "come" that he picked the firewood to Xiucai. Xiucai asked, "What is its price?" The firewood seller understood the word "price" and said the price. Xiucai said: "The outside is real and the inside is virtual, there is more smoke and less flame, please damage it." "The firewood seller didn't understand what he said, so he picked up the firewood and left."
Jokes can involve not only rhetoric, but also logic. There was a xiucai who did not go to the county school teacher for a long time, and the school teacher punished him for composing an essay entitled "What is the cow?" 》。 The show was quickly completed, and its conclusion was: "According to the word 'Ho', the word 'He' is found in Mencius: 'What will the sir?'" "What about the cows?" But sir also, cow also, two and one, one and two also. The logic of this epilogue is guilty of inadequacy.
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Han Di's "Five Bull Diagrams" (partial)
Color on paper, Tang, 20.8 × 540 cm
It is now in the Palace Museum
Finally, a few examples of avoidance. In the past, there was a custom of avoiding the names of the elders, and sometimes jokes were made. Avoidance, like after the break, is to hide the words to be said, similar to riddles. Two examples. In the fifth dynasty, Feng Dao served as the prime minister of several dynasties in a row, and was a great nobleman. There is a disciple who talks about the first chapter of Lao Tzu, and the first sentence is "Tao ke Dao, very Dao" This man did not dare to say the word "Tao", so he said: "I dare not say it, but I dare not say it, I dare not say it." ”
In the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a Qian Liangchen, the official was able to participate in the government affairs (vice chancellor), his youngest son was very smart, and when he met "Liangchen" in school, he changed his name to "Daddy". One day reading Mencius, "The so-called good minister of the present, the so-called thief of the ancients," he said, "The so-called father of the present, the so-called thief of the ancients." "You say ridiculous?
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Drumming rap terracotta figurines
Eastern Han Dynasty, 56 cm high, excavated in 1957 in Tianhui Mountain, Chengdu, Sichuan
It is now in the collection of the National Museum of China
Avoidance is not limited to the name, but can also be an unlucky word. In the Song Dynasty, there was a show talent called Liu Mian, who paid the most attention to taboos, and when taking the exam, he was particularly taboo about the word "falling". His servant accidentally said the word "fall" and was beaten. Homophonous words with "fall" must be taboo, not to say "happy", to say "well-being". When he had finished the examination and waited for the list, he heard that the list had come out, so he asked the servant to look at it. After a while the servant returned, and Liu Mian asked him, "Have I been hit?" The servant said, "Xiu Cai is kang also." This "Kang" later became an allusion, and the author of "The Biography of the Children's Heroes" used it, see the thirty-first time.
Jokes must be able to achieve the purpose of making people laugh, and the people who must listen to them and the people who speak them must have common background knowledge, such as ancient books, idioms, proverbs, pronunciation, words, etc., otherwise they will "pearls and shadows". For example, if you don't know that Lao Tzu has "shangde and unethical" and "Xuanzhi and Xuan", you will not know how to use the natural coincidence of "not being able to get up" and "hanging and hanging" in the letter to the Taoist; if you don't know that there is an idiom of "thirty-six counts, walking is a good plan", you will not understand the profound irony of "thirty-six buns".
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Zhou Qihe dressed up
[Afterword] On August 27, 1988, people's daily had an article by Xi Mingzhen remembering the famous sichuan opera ugly Zhou Qihe, which mentioned a story. One day before liberation, the famous painter Zhang Daqian said to Zhou Qihe: "You are a gentleman, I am a villain." Zhou Qihe was very puzzled. Zhang Daqian smiled and said, "The gentleman moves his mouth, and the villain moves." You sing and move, I draw with your hands. So you are a gentleman and I am a villain. The crux of this joke is the ambiguity of "moving" and "moving.". The proverbial phrase "the gentleman moves, the villain moves" is used in quarrelsome situations, that is, the two sentences are accompanied by a kind of "presupposition". Now used in situations that do not conform to this "presupposition", it makes people laugh. The harmonics, word breaks, and ambiguities of this piece are all caused by not conforming to the preset.