In Chinese culture, dreams hold a profound significance, deeply rooted in ancient beliefs and philosophies that shape their interpretation. In traditional Chinese thought, dreams were not merely random occurrences but meaningful messages from the spiritual realm. The earliest recorded interpretations can be traced back to the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE), where dreams were seen as reflections of one’s inner state and a way to communicate with ancestors and deities.
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What are the dreams as Chinese Theory
The master Lietseu says: a mental encounter produces a dream. A bodily contact produces an event. That is why the thoughts of the day and the dreams of the night are what the mind and body encounter. That is why for the man whose mind is ‘coagulated’, thoughts and dreams stop of themselves. He does not speak of the realities of the day. Dreams, which are also real things, he does not try to understand. For they are only phases of the coming and going of the metamorphosis. The sages of antiquity, when they were awake, were unmindful of themselves. When they slept, they did not dream.
Dreams and soul-breath of Chinese philosophy
An astonishing phrase in the Chinese passage appended to the last chapter is associated with the same ideas: like ‘A mental encounter produces a dream, a bodily contact produces an event.’ It is true that in this passage we are far from any personification of dreams, but we still have the idea of separation from the body, of a journey by the houen the ‘soul-breath’ of Chinese philosophy – which, during sleep, sets out with the aim of making chance encounters on its way. During this picaresque journey the houen meets other houens, the bouens of people asleep, sorcerers on missions, magicians on mystic travels, persons who died violent deaths, ancestors, gods or demons. This particular concept constantly recurs and is found even in mediaeval descriptions of witches’ sabbaths.
Dreams in Chinese History
Duke of Kuo
In China, during the period of the Contending States, between the fifth and third centuries B.c., a Duke of Kuo imprisoned the interpreter who had given an unfavourable interpretation of his dream. He hoped to halt its motor force in this way, but only managed to delay it, his dream taking effect six years later. In the same way, when a man refrained from having an ominous dream interpreted, nothing harmful hap- pened to him until the day when, three years later, believing the danger was averted, he had the dream interpreted and died on the spot.
I Ching
In the I Ching, too, the famous Chinese Book of Change, we find such forecasts with a time limit. If such and such a circumstance takes place, such an event will take place in three years, or seven years, or ten years.” This is not a question of prophecy or second-sight, but of intuitive deduction. There is a foreseeable lapse of time between the sowing of the seed and the flowering of the plant. But the dream is precisely a sort of seed which has psycho- motor effects.
literary dreams in Chinese culture
The Chinese seem to have been even more interested in dreams than the Indians. Their accounts of spontaneous, ‘edited’ and literary dreams are innumerable. But unlike other peoples, they put forward not only analogies like those hitherto observed in dream books, but also principles of interpretation.
This may be connected with the centralization of the Chinese Empire and the fact that there were high officials responsible for the interpretation of dreams at the imperial court at a very early date. Originally, these officials also had control over the other divinatory and oracular techniques. And in documents dating from the Che king and the Chou king we find very clear allusions to the parallelism between these techniques.
Wu, founder of the Chou dynasty
Wu, founder of the Chou dynasty, said just before joining battle: ‘My dreams and the divination (by tortoiseshell) agree. It is a double portent.’ Anyone who has studied the 1 Ching, the famous oracular book of changes, knows that the hexagrams of which it is composed are based on symbolic images similar to those of dreams. Dreams and oracles are both manifestations of the unconscious and we can understand that a concordance in their interpretation might be very reassuring. Of course, the soothsayers of the period did not rely on a theory of the unconscious like that used by the modern. Belief in the super- natural or divine origin of dreams was frequent, if not general. But the parallelism between their various techniques indicates that the Chinese had an intuition of the single source of these phenomena. Besides, it is hard to say whether, in remote Chinese antiquity, divinatory techniques were rudimentary and only matured later, or whether they were only the residue of lost skills.
The Chou Li
The Chou Li, dating from the fourth century B.c. and adapted under the Han dynasty, mentions factors of astrological and geomantic orders which had to be taken into account in the interpretation of dreams, but 600 years later a commentator on the work confesses that the men of his own time no longer knew how to use its disciplines. However that may be, we find a ‘Count of religious affairs’, or ts’ong po, as minister at the court of the Chou emperors. Under this minister was a ‘Great Soothsayer’ (ta-pou), controlling in his turn the specialists responsible for divination by tortoiseshell, yarrow sticks and the hexagrams (described in the I Ching), and, lastly, dreams.
The Five Elements and Dream Symbolism
Central to Chinese cosmology is the concept of the Five Elements (Wu Xing) – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water – which are believed to govern the universe and all aspects of life, including dreams. Each element corresponds to specific qualities and symbols, influencing how dreams are interpreted.
Wood (Mu): Associated with growth, creativity, and vitality. Dreams featuring trees or forests might signify personal growth or new beginnings.
Fire (Huo): Symbolizes passion, transformation, and purification. Dreaming of fire could suggest emotional intensity or a need for change.
Earth (Tu): Represents stability, nurturing, and grounding. Dreams involving soil or mountains might indicate a need for security or a connection to nature.
Metal (Jin): Signifies strength, resilience, and clarity. Seeing metal objects or structures in dreams may denote perseverance or a focus on inner strength.
Water (Shui): Symbolizes fluidity, adaptability, and intuition. Dreams with water imagery often reflect emotional depth, intuition, or the unconscious mind.
Understanding these elemental associations helps decipher the symbolic language of dreams in Chinese culture, providing insights into personal growth, relationships, and spiritual development.
The Role of Yin and Yang: Balance and Harmony in Dream Interpretation
In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang represent opposing forces that complement each other and maintain balance in the universe. Applied to dreams, Yin (feminine, passive, dark) and Yang (masculine, active, light) energies influence how dreams are perceived and their underlying meanings.
Yin Dreams: When the Yin is strong, one dreams of crossing a great expanse of water and one is afraid. Often depict introspection, receptivity, and emotional states. Dreams with Yin qualities may reveal hidden fears, desires, or unresolved emotions.
Yang Dreams: When the Yang is strong, one dreams of walking through a great fire and one is roasted. Reflect action, assertiveness, and outward expression. Yang-oriented dreams might signify ambition, achievement, or challenges in the waking life.
When Yin and Yang are equally strong, one dreams of life and death (for the Yin and the Yang must be in harmony; if they are equally strong, there is a struggle and they harm each other).
When one is sated, one dreams of giving. When one is hungry, one dreams of taking. That is why when one is ill of an excess of lightness and emptiness, one dreams one is rising. When one is ill of an excess of heaviness and fullness, one dreams that one is sinking (this alludes to certain Chinese medical theories, according to which the organs, viscera, blood vessels, etc, are divided into full and empty ones).
If one sleeps lying on a belt, one dreams of a snake. When one is on the point of passing under the influence of Yin, one dreams of fire. When one is about to fall ill, one dreams of food. When one dreams of drinking alcohol, one will be in mourning. When one dreams of singing and dancing, one will weep.
Interpreting dreams through the lens of Yin and Yang helps practitioners navigate life’s complexities, promoting harmony between mind, body, and spirit.
Eight manifestations
What do we call the eight manifestations? They are circumstances, actions, the act of obtaining, mourning, sorrow, joy, birth and death. They are the eight manifestations which are the corporal connections. Rules and rites full of interest were formulated for the benefit of the official in charge of dreams, or chanmong. So that a dream should be properly interpreted, it was necessary to take note of the year and season in which it occurred, the conjunction of heaven and earth, and the respective situations of Yin and Yang, which are the two great energy-giving forces, positive and negative, male and female, imagined by Chinese philosophy.
Six aspects
It was essential to take into account the sun, moon, stars and constellations, and then to place the dream in one of the six categories accepted at the time: ordinary dreams, dreams of terror, dreams of thought, waking dreams, and dreams of fear. There were also other classifications, but we have little information about them. In the Documents the reader will find an extract from the Lie Tseu, a Taoist work which defines these six kinds of dreams and sketches a theory of interpretation. What do we call the six aspects?
- Ordinary dreams (tchengmong, literally correct dreams; they appear of their own accord, without previous emotion; they are, in fact, undiagnosed dreams);
- Dreams of terror (ngomong, dreams caused by dread);
- dreams of thought (seumong, or dreams of what one thought about during the day),
- dreams of waking (woumong; this expression raises a a philological difficulty. The official commentary says: one dreams of what one has spoken about during the day. That is not very different from the preceding dream. The commentary avoids the difficulty by saying that this dream has a physical cause whereas the preceding one has a purely psychological basis);
- dreams of joy (bimong, dreams caused by joy);
- dreams of fear (kin-mong, dreams caused by a fright).
They are the six aspects which are the spiritual relation- ships. If one does not know whence the sentiments (affecting the mind) and the changes (affecting the body) come when something happens, one is ignorant of its causes. But if one knows whence the sentiments and changes come when some- thing happens, one knows what its causes are. Knowing what its causes are, one has nothing to fear. In the structure and mechanism of the whole body, everything is in union with the heaven and the earth, everything corresponds to the beings and the species (this is an exposition of the Chinese cosmogonic theory, common to all schools of thought, according to which there is exact correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm at all stages).
Freudian psychoanalysis and Conclusion
The idea of Lie-Tseu, according to which knowledge of causes destroys the fear, if not the effects of the dream. That is a point of view that Freudian psychoanalysis has constantly defended, and although it can hardly have been shared by many Chinese interpreters it was inherent in the Taoist philosophy, which held that mental troubles, whether of the day or the night, could be reduced by knowing their causes.
Chinese dream theory offers a profound framework for understanding the symbolic language of dreams and their significance in personal and spiritual development. By exploring ancient wisdom through the lenses of elemental forces, Yin and Yang energies, and practical interpretation techniques, individuals can unlock the transformative power of their dreams. While rooted in ancient traditions, Chinese dream theory continues to evolve, adapting to contemporary lifestyles and psychological perspectives.
