Dream Galaxy

Literary dream · Transformation

Dreaming within a dream

State of Song, China · c. 4th–3rd century BCE

夢飲酒者，旦而哭泣；夢哭泣者，旦而田獵。方其夢也，不知其夢也。夢之中又占其夢焉，覺而後知其夢也。且有大覺而後知此其大夢也

Original text — Zhuangzi, On the Equality of Things, Zhuang Zhou (attributed)

He who dreams of drinking wine weeps in the morning; he who dreams of weeping goes hunting in the morning. While dreaming he does not know it is a dream; in the dream he even interprets his dream, and only on waking knows it was a dream. And there is a great awakening, after which we know this is all a great dream.

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
Zhuangzi, On the Equality of Things — Zhuang Zhou (attributed), c. 3rd century BCE
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Literary dream
Place
State of Song, China · Chinese
Date
c. 4th–3rd century BCE
Uncertainty
Moderate — Philosophical reflection on dreaming rather than a single dream report.
Imagery
Food · Time
Feelings
Confusion · Wonder

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Dreams of becoming someone or something else, or of not knowing whether one is awake, have long interested writers on lucid dreaming; Stevenson credited such night work with parts of Jekyll and Hyde.

Stevenson (1888)

Mythological

Metamorphosis is one of mythology’s oldest engines — Ovid’s Metamorphoses gathers hundreds of beings changed into trees, birds and stars.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Chinese traditions

Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream gave Chinese thought the idea of wuhua, “the transformation of things”, and the phrase “Zhuang Zhou dreams of the butterfly” remains shorthand for the blurred line between self and world.

Zhuangzi, Qiwulun

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images