Dream Galaxy

Religious narrative · Cities & buildings

The great ghost broke down the gate

Jin (Shanxi), China · 581 BCE

晉侯夢大厲。被髮及地。搏膺而踊曰。殺余孫不義。余得請於帝矣。壞大門及寢門而入。公懼。入于室。又壞戶。公覺。

Original text — Zuo Zhuan, Duke Cheng, Zuo Qiuming (attributed)

The Marquis of Jin dreamed of a great ghost, its hair hanging to the ground, beating its breast and leaping: “You killed my descendants unjustly! I have obtained the Lord’s permission.” It broke through the main gate and the chamber gate and came in. The duke, terrified, fled into an inner room; it broke that door too. Then the duke woke.

Translation · Editorial translation (draft)

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Source
Zuo Zhuan, Duke Cheng — Zuo Qiuming (attributed), c. 4th century BCE
Rights
Public domain (ancient text)
Record type
Religious narrative
Place
Jin (Shanxi), China · Chinese
Date
581 BCE
Uncertainty
Moderate — Historical chronicle; the Zuo Zhuan records many dreams as omens.
Imagery
The dead · House · Ruler · Gate
Feelings
Horror · Fear

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Houses, corridors and endless stairs are frequent dream settings. Some writers read buildings as figures for the self; others note simply that dreams rebuild the spaces we move through every day.

cf. Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams (1888)

Mythological

Labyrinths, towers and underground cities appear in myths from Crete to Babel — built places where people lose their way, reach too high, or find hidden kingdoms.

Greek myth; Genesis 11

Chinese traditions

Tang tales like “The Governor of Nanke” place a whole kingdom of palaces inside a dream, only to reveal it as an ants’ nest — a lasting image for the brevity of worldly glory.

Li Gongzuo, c. 802

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images