Dream Galaxy

Literary dream · Transformation

The kingdom under the locust tree

Guangling (Yangzhou), China · c. 802

夢中倏忽，若度一世矣，生感念嗟歎，遂呼二客而語之，驚駭，因與生出外，尋槐下穴。生指曰：「此即夢中所驚入處。」

Original text — The Governor of Nanke, Li Gongzuo

In the dream a whole lifetime had passed in an instant. Moved, he sighed, called his two guests and told them. Astonished, they went out with him to look for the hole beneath the locust tree. He pointed: "This is where, in my dream, I entered in wonder."

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
The Governor of Nanke — Li Gongzuo, c. 802
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Literary dream
Place
Guangling (Yangzhou), China · Chinese
Date
c. 802
Uncertainty
High — Tang tale: the dream kingdom of Huai'an turns out to be an ants' nest beneath an old locust tree.
Imagery
Tree · Insects · Palace · Ruler · Time
Feelings
Wonder · Confusion

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Dreams of becoming someone or something else, or of not knowing whether one is awake, have long interested writers on lucid dreaming; Stevenson credited such night work with parts of Jekyll and Hyde.

Stevenson (1888)

Mythological

Metamorphosis is one of mythology’s oldest engines — Ovid’s Metamorphoses gathers hundreds of beings changed into trees, birds and stars.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Chinese traditions

Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream gave Chinese thought the idea of wuhua, “the transformation of things”, and the phrase “Zhuang Zhou dreams of the butterfly” remains shorthand for the blurred line between self and world.

Zhuangzi, Qiwulun

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images