XX. RYOU-KAIK-TJYO — DELAY GUEST INSTRUMENT (RING PUZZLE). 

Ryou-kaik-tjyo (Chinese, lau kák ch’á), or “Delay guest instrument”, is the name given to the familiar ring and bar puzzle which the Chinese call kau tsz’ lin wán, or “nine connected rings”. Fig. 52. My Korean informant tells me that this puzzle is said to have been invented, according to a Chinese story, by the famous Chinese hero, Hung Ming* (A.D. 181-234), who gave it to his wife when he went to the war. The story

Fig. 52.— Kau tsz’ lin wán. Canton, China.

Museum of Arch., Univ. of Pennsylvania. No. 7626.

Fig. 53.— Chiye no wa.

Ring Puzzle. Japan.

relates that she forgot her sorrow in attempting to solve it. In Japan there are a great variety of ring puzzles, which are known as chiye no wa, or “rings of ingenuity”. A simple form is represented in Fig. 53. I am unable to learn that the first represented ring puzzle is commonly known in Japan.

* Chinese Readers’ Manual, No. 88.