Enigmatic Concepts: On the History of Riddles in China and the West

Schmiedl, Anne Kathrin

Zusammenfassung

In this article, I contribute to the understanding of conceptual boundaries in the Chinese context by discussing the rift between “old” and “new” concepts as well as “inside” and “outside” perspectives on these concepts. To address these problems, I analyze one aspect in the field of literature, the concept of riddle. My article shows that riddle is conceptually linked to folklore, orality, and play in modernity. It juxtaposes these observations with two different literary phenomena, yinyu and mi, and their conceptual development in the imperial Chinese tradition. Finally, my article proves that “modern” observers often struggle with defining yinyu and mi, because of the way riddle is conceptualized in modernity.