Anecdote collection · Death & the departed
Fallen from the bed, eaten by worms
Jinyang (Taiyuan), China · 617 (as told)
高祖夢墮床下，見遍身為蟲蛆所食，甚惡之。
The future Emperor Gaozu dreamed he fell from his bed and saw his whole body being eaten by maggots, and was deeply disturbed.
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- Source
- Taiping Guangji, dream volumes 276–282 — Li Fang et al. (compilers), 978
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Jinyang (Taiyuan), China · Chinese
- Date
- 617 (as told)
- Uncertainty
- High — Anecdote preserved in the Taiping Guangji (978); the dream is reported, not first-hand.
- Imagery
- Falling · Insects · The dead
- Feelings
- Horror
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Dreams of the dead returning are widely reported after bereavement. Ellis noted how such dreams often move, over years, from disbelief to quiet acceptance; many people describe them as comforting rather than frightening.
Ellis (1911), ch. VIII
Mythological
In Homer, dreams pass through gates of horn and ivory; across many cultures the dead were believed to visit the living in sleep, and dreams were a place where the two could meet.
Odyssey XIX
Chinese traditions
Chinese poets wrote dreams of the departed as acts of remembrance: Su Shi’s “Ten years, living and dead” and Du Fu’s “My old friend entered my dream” are read to this day as elegies.
Su Shi (1075); Du Fu (759)
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- The great ghost broke down the gate Jin (Shanxi), China · 581 BCE
- A long green dog from the south Liangzhou (Wuwei), China · 376 (as told)
- The scene I had to write England · before 1911
- Two women yoked to my son’s chariot Susa (setting) · 472 BCE (play)
- What pain it was to drown London, England · c. 1593 (play)
- About to be nailed down England · before 1911