Anecdote collection · People & kin
Two boys said: move your bed
Jiankang (Nanjing), China · c. 480 (Southern Qi)
晝臥北壁下。夢兩童子，遽云：「移公床。」孝嗣驚起，壁有聲，行數步而壁倒，壓床。
He lay napping by the north wall and dreamed that two boys said urgently, “Move your bed!” He jumped up in alarm; the wall creaked, and when he had taken a few steps it collapsed onto the bed.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- Taiping Guangji, dream volumes 276–282 — Li Fang et al. (compilers), 978
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Jiankang (Nanjing), China · Chinese
- Date
- c. 480 (Southern Qi)
- Uncertainty
- High — Anecdote preserved in the Taiping Guangji (978); the dream is reported, not first-hand.
- Imagery
- Child · House
- Feelings
- Fear · Relief
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.
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- My late husband came back to mend the house Pengcheng (Xuzhou), China · 5th century
- My sister came through the keyhole Ithaca (setting) · c. 8th century BCE