One Good Way In Learning Chinese Characters.

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 - solving Chinese riddles, not about guessing objects but Chinese characters. There are two basic ways of approaching this delightful mind exercise. From the given clues, one either constructs or deconstructs the character or characters until the puzzle is found. The answer may be a single character or a phrase. For example, 18 sons become 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 employing both schemes at the same time. Without further ado, let the riddles begin :) Starting with easier ones first.

For those who do 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.