Dream Galaxy

Anecdote collection · People & kin

Heaven lent us a stranger’s fortune

China · undated (Jin collection)

夢天公過而哀之，敕外有以給與。司命按錄籍，云：「此人相貧，限不過此。惟有張車子，應賜祿千萬。車子未生，請以借之。」

Original text — In Search of the Supernatural, vol. 10, Gan Bao

He dreamed that the Lord of Heaven passed by, pitied him and ordered that something be given him. The Keeper of Fates checked the register and said: “This man is fated to be poor; he can have no more than this. Only Zhang Chezi is due ten million in fortune — and Chezi is not yet born. Let us lend it to him.”

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

Open this dream in the galaxy →

Source
In Search of the Supernatural, vol. 10 — Gan Bao, c. 350
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Anecdote collection
Place
China · Chinese
Date
undated (Jin collection)
Uncertainty
High — Anecdote from Gan Bao’s In Search of the Supernatural (c. 350); reported, not first-hand.
Imagery
A stranger · Sky · Book · Ruler
Feelings
Relief · Wonder

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Family members, friends and strangers populate most dreams. Freud read many such dreams as wishes in disguise; contemporary researchers emphasise continuity with waking relationships and concerns.

Freud, Dream Psychology (1920)

Mythological

Dreams in epic and scripture are often addressed to someone — a wife waiting for a husband, a son receiving a vision for his family — and are told aloud to be understood.

Odyssey XIX; Genesis 37

Chinese traditions

Confucius lamented that he no longer dreamed of the Duke of Zhou; in Chinese letters, dreaming of someone is a measure of how much they are on one’s mind.

Analects 7.5

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images