Dream Galaxy

Anecdote collection · People & kin

A stranger asked to swap heads

Langya, China · 4th century (Jin)

夜夢一人，塺齙大鼻閉目，請曰：「愛君之貌，換君之頭，可乎？」夢中不獲已，遂被換去。覺而人見者悉驚走。

Original text — Taiping Guangji, dream volumes 276–282, Li Fang et al. (compilers)

At night he dreamed of a man with a pocked face, a huge nose and closed eyes, who said: “I love your looks — may I exchange heads with you?” In the dream he could not refuse, and his head was taken. When he woke, everyone who saw him fled in fright.

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
Taiping Guangji, dream volumes 276–282 — Li Fang et al. (compilers), 978
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Anecdote collection
Place
Langya, China · Chinese
Date
4th century (Jin)
Uncertainty
High — Anecdote preserved in the Taiping Guangji (978); the dream is reported, not first-hand.
Imagery
A stranger · Faces
Feelings
Horror · Confusion

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