Figurative language (隱語), in its narrow sense, consists of riddles and metaphors. The purpose of this paper was to explore different types of figurative languages in literature. Generally speaking, in ancient records, history and fictions, figurative languages include riddles, puzzles (微言, subtle and profound languages) "she-fu-ci" (射覆辭, guessing and expressing what's covered with poems), predictions, dream analysis, humor, puns, body metaphors, fables, and so on. This paper covered the aforementioned varieties and employed several plots from Dunghuang Manuscripts "Wuzixu Bianwen" as examples to illustrate different genres of figurative languages and to investigate the vital role of figurative languages in pathetic structures of ballad literature. In addition, the structure of Medicinal Herbs Poems was analyzed.