Anecdote collection · Nature & weather
Cooking rice in a stone mortar
Jianghuai region, China · c. 800 (Tang)
賈客張瞻將歸。夢炊於臼中
The merchant Zhang Zhan, about to return home, dreamed he was cooking rice in a stone mortar.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- Taiping Guangji, dream volumes 276–282 — Li Fang et al. (compilers), 978
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Jianghuai region, China · Chinese
- Date
- c. 800 (Tang)
- Uncertainty
- High — Read as a pun — a mortar with no pot (釜, “wife”) — he came home to find his wife had died.
- Imagery
- Food · House · Partner
- Feelings
- Unease · Confusion
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Storms, mountains and gardens in dreams are often traced to the day’s impressions or the sleeper’s physical state — Ellis connected a dreamed cyclone to a windy night.
Ellis (1911), ch. IV
Mythological
Sacred mountains and world-trees connect earth and sky in many traditions, from Olympus to Yggdrasil to Mount Kunlun.
Comparative mythology
Chinese traditions
Landscape — mountains, rivers, mist — is the setting of countless Chinese dream journeys, where the dreamer’s wandering mirrors the shan-shui painting tradition.
Li Bai, Dreaming of Tianmu
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- Irma’s injection Bellevue, near Vienna · 23–24 July 1895
- My mother lacked a pair of gloves London, England · 29 June 1667
- Cherry stones beside the pillow Tang China · c. 850
- The millet was not yet cooked Handan, China (story setting) · c. 780
- My late husband came back to mend the house Pengcheng (Xuzhou), China · 5th century
- Who is dead in the White House? Washington, D.C., USA · early April 1865 (as reported)