Chinese Dream Culture

Author: Lu Ying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Ancients believed that divination techniques such as turtle divination and divination with yarrow stalks were external matters, while divination based on external factors could predict prosperity or adversity. Dreams, on the other hand, were considered expressions of the spirit, a special psychological experience during sleep. Ancients regarded them as a means of communication between humans and gods or spirits. Therefore, the interpretation of dreams has always been considered far more important than turtle divination or divination with yarrow stalks. There are many stories about dreams in Chinese history, such as emperors dreaming of dragons, officials dreaming of coffins (representing official status), and scholars dreaming of writing brushes. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, there was a famous scholar named Jiang Yan. It is said that in his youth, he dreamed of someone giving him a five-colored brush, after which his literary talent flourished. His works, such as "The Lament for Betrayal" and "The Farewell Lament," nearly caused paper to become scarce due to their popularity. Later, why did Jiang Yan's talent decline? It turned out that he dreamed of the person who had given him the brush taking it back. There are many such stories, and their authenticity is highly questionable. However, these legends at least reveal the ancients' mindset that dreams had a mysterious connection to reality, or that dreams could predict the future. To uncover this connection and reveal the mysterious predictions, divination of dreams was needed. Divination of dreams, as later called, was the act of interpreting or explaining dreams. Diviners predicted the fortune or misfortune of people based on what they dreamed. Among various forms of miscellaneous divination, such as divination of ear noises, bird or animal calls, eye twitching, and sneezing, dream divination was considered the most advanced. Thus, the Book of Han·Treatise on Arts and Literature stated, "There are many forms of divination, but dreams are the most important." The prominence of dream divination was directly related to the ancients' superstition about dreams. Modern science has proven that dreams are the result of certain brain cells' activity during sleep and are closely related to people's daily experiences and psychological needs. Therefore, it is often said, "What you think during the day, you dream about at night." Ancients also had the saying, "People in the south do not dream of horses, and people in the north do not dream of boats." However, due to the limitations of their understanding, ancients interpreted dreams as the activities of ghosts and gods, believing that ghosts and gods communicated with people during sleep to convey divine will or provide guidance. In their eyes, dream divination was an act of discerning divine will, naturally holding great significance. Naturally, from today's perspective, based on primitive experience and heavily colored with mystery, dream divination, interspersed with many fantastical and superstitious tales, is not to be trusted. However, dream divination was indeed a cultural phenomenon in ancient China, and records of it were often intertwined with politics, military, culture, folklore, and many other fields of the time, thus retaining some research value. The origin of Chinese dream divination is extremely early. In ancient mythological times, people first considered that dreams had a divine nature, that dreams were arranged and managed by gods. Since dreams were managed by gods, in the White Zé Monster Illustrations, it was said that under the rule of the Yellow Emperor, there was a divine beast named Boqi, who was specifically tasked with consuming nightmares. During the Han Dynasty, there was a record of "Boqi consuming dreams" (Treatise on Rites of the Later Han), and even in the Dunhuang Tang Dynasty manuscript White Zé Monster Illustrations, it was written: "If a person has a nightmare at night, upon waking, they should tie their hair back and curse: Boqi! Boqi! Do not drink alcohol, eat ordinary food, and be joyful. The nightmare will return to Boqi, and aversion will cease, great fortune will arise. If this is done seven times, there will be no misfortune." Boqi consuming nightmares was under the command of the divine Yellow Emperor. When the Yellow Emperor himself dreamed, since he was a god, his dreams