The Interpretation of Dreams in Ancient China
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THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS IN ANCIENT CHINA by ROBERTO KEH ^ONG B.A.(Hons.), McGill University, 1976 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Asian Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May 1981 © Roberto Ken Ong, 1981 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of /Ti' ^xf^-StC* The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date r>r C I O /-7Q \ ABSTRACT This work is an exercise in armchair ethnography. It aims to show, hy examining certain data from the inexhaustible traditional Chinese literature on the subject of dreams and dreaming, some aspects of the dream life of the ancient Chinese. The first five chapters deal with the various ways in which dreams were regarded as significant in ancient China. Although my approach is primarily thematic, the data are presented in a more or less chronological order, so that some light may be thrown on the develop• mental dimension of the traditional Chinese thinking on dreams in the process. Chapters six and seven are concerned with the methodology of Chinese dream interpretation. Two distinct approaches to this are identified, which I term the corroborative and the associative. The Ricoeurian notion of "interpretation as recollection of meaning," with its emphasis on contextual understanding, is found compatible with the underlying principles of the Chinese oneirocritical practice. In the final chapter, I further label the corroborative approach "iconic" and the associative approach "symbolic." I conclude with the observation that the ancient Chinese owed their interest in dreams to their unremitting ii search for meaning in the cosmos, of which man, in the traditional concept, was an integral part. I find this interest indicative of the affective aspect of the Chinese mind, and conjecture that as long as the Chinese have hopes, fears, joys and sorrows, as do the rest of the world, they will continue to dream. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I: DREAM AS HARBINGER OF FUTURE EVENTS 1.1 The Dreams of Huang-ti 1.2 The Dreams of Other Ancient Emperors 1.3 Predictive Dreams in the Confucian Classics CHAPTER II: DREAM AS MESSAGE FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD 2.1 Dreams in the Shang Oracle-Bone Inscriptions 2.2 Dreams Involving Spirits in the Tso-chuan 2.3 Dream Ghosts and the Duality of Souls 2.4 Message Dreams from the Dead 2.5 Message Dreams from Deities of Human Origin 2.6 Dream Incubation 2.7 Dream as Commodity 2.8 The Dream-God CHAPTER III: DREAM AS RESPONSE TO PHYSICAL STIMULI 3.1 The Internal Stimuli 3.2 The External Stimuli 3.3 A Freudian Critique CHAPTER IV: DREAM AS PROJECTION OF MENTAL STATES 4.1 Confucius as Dreamer 4.2 Dream and Rationalism 4.3 Confucius as Dreamt 4.4 Dream and Skepticism 4.5 Dreams- Come-False iv CHAPTER V: DREAM AND REALITY 84 5.1 Chuang-tzu and Descartes 5.2 The Butterfly Dream as Allegory 5.3 Dream as Flight 5.4 Dream Realism in the Lieh-tzu 5.5 The Illusion of Time and Space 5.6 The Buddhist Vision 5.7 The Kuan-yin-tzu on Dream Ambiguity 5.8 Dream Realism from T'ang to Ch'ing 5.9 Spatio-temporal Discreteness and Continuity CHAPTER VI: TOWARD A THEORY OF CHINESE DREAM INTERPRETATION 143 6.1 Meaning and Interpretation 6.2 Dream as Multivocal Text 6.3 The Classification of Dreams CHAPTER VII: METHODS OF CHINESE DREAM INTERPRETATION 165" 7.1 The Corroborative Approach 7.1.1 Oneiromancy and Tortoise-Shell Scorching 7.1.2 Oneiromancy and Yarrow-Stalk Casting 7.1.3 Oneiromancy and Sun-Dog Watching 7.2 The Associative Approach 7.2.1 Decoding Dream Symbols by Direct Association 7.2.2 Decoding Dream Symbols by Poetic Logic 7.2.3 Decoding Dream Symbols by Linguistic Means 7.2.3.1 Paronomastic Linkage 7.2.3.2 Ideographic Analysis CHAPTER VIII: SUMMARY 197 NOTES 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY 219 APPENDIX: LIST OF TRANSLITERATED CHINESE WORDS 226 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to Professor Daniel L. Overmyer for his patient guidance as advisor; to Professors Jan W. Walls and Yvonne L. Walls of the University of Victoria for their friendship, encouragement, and help in more ways than there is space to record here; to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Mouat, P. Eng., under whose blessed roof I have had numerous pleasant dreams in the last three years; and to Mr. Ronald J. Balden, soon to be with the Atomic Energy Limited of Canada, for many stimulating discussions and for telling me, in particular, the story of August Kekule and his hypnagogic vision. Lastly, it is my wish to dedicate this humble fruit of love's labor to my friend Miss Holly E. Ratcliffe of McMaster University. vi Lernen wir traumen, meine Herren, dann finden wir vielleicht die Wahrheit. — August Kekule Ber. 23(1890):1307 vii 1 Introduction 1 Rationale Dreams have always fascinated humankind. They are worthy of serious investigation simply because, if for no other reason, they are, or are at least thought to be, there. Dreaming is a private experience. As long as the dream itself cannot be objectified, its occurrence remains an assumption. Nevertheless, this assumption is a universal one; for dream reports can be found in all societies whether ancient or modern and however primitive or advanced. Dreams are, as a rule, reported as events that have taken place in sleep. Quite apart from the philosophical question whether such events are essentially different from our waking experiences, it is legitimate to ask, at the experiential level, whether they mean anything. This question often presents itself because many dreams verge on the bizarre. For people in the habit of assuming that whatever does not make immediate sense should be quickly forgotten, such a question may not exist. For others, however, strangeness itself is an invitation to adventure and discovery, and incomprehensibility an indication of hidden significance. Hence the interpretation of dreams, an art held in many ancient societies to be of such importance that no personal, social, political, or economic question could be decided upon without first having recourse to it. 2 In more recent centuries in the West, particularly- after the advent of the Age of Reason, the importance ascribed to dreams and dream interpretation had considerably decreased, so that when Preud revived the whole issue with the publication of his Die Traumdeutung at the turn of this century, the event could justly be described as epoch- making. Since then, the subject of dreaming has become res• pectable in academic circles. It is almost fashionable as a topic for research in such, disciplines as psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, religion, literature, and even clinical physiology. Tnis thesis aims to contribute to the current interest in dreams by delving into the vast store of material on the subject preserved in traditional Chinese sources. It attempts to show two things; first, how dreams were regarded as significant by the ancient Chinese, and secondly, the ways in which the meaning of dreams was determined. 2 Sources Theoretically, since I intend to pursue the subject within the confines of China's past, anything written in Chinese before the modern era touching on dreams is poten• tial primary source material. Realistically, however, it behooves me to be selective. Thus, my references are of three general types. First, works of official standing, such as the Confucian classics and the dynastic histories. Secondly, works by individual thinkers, scholars, and writers 3 throughout the ages, e.g. the Chuang-tzu, Lieh-tzu. Lun heng, Ch'ien-fu lunt etc. Thirdly, works that cater to popular tastes or of popular origin, e.g. the numerous pi-chi hsiao- shuo (anecdotal fiction) and the anonymous Chou-kung chieh- meng (Duke of Chou interprets dreams). Of the first group, the Tso-chuan and Chou-li, both dating back to pre-Ch'in times, are of the greatest impor• tance for my present purpose. Of the second group, all the four works mentioned above are indispensable. In the case of the Chuang-tzu, Ir,refer in particular to the "Ch'i-wu lun" chapter (2), which, as one of the so-called "inner chapters," dates back to the Warring-States period. The Lieh-tzu as we have it now, although containing material from the third century B.C., was written in about A.D. 300, as pointed out by A.C. Graham in his introduction to his translation of the book. I have made extensive use of the "Chou Mu-wang" chapter (3). Both Lun heng and Ch'ien-fu lun are indisputably from Han times. In spite of their advanced state of corruption, both texts are mostly readable, thanks to Liu P'an-sui's Lun heng chi-chieh (prefaced jen-shen, i.e. 1932; rpt. Peking, 1957) and to Wang Chi-p'ei's annotation and emen• dation of the Ch'ien-fu lun (prefaced Chia-ch'ing 19th year, chia-hsu, i.e.