The ancient people's exploration of dreams

The ancient people's exploration of dreams

There have been many descriptions of dreams in ancient China, among which the most widely known is the story of Zhuangzhou's dream butterfly. One day Chuang Tzu fell asleep soundly and found himself transformed into a butterfly, flying about freely. When I woke up, I knew it was a dream. So he thought: 'I don't know (Zhuang) Zhou's dream is a butterfly? How much is the butterfly dream?'

The idiom 'Nanke a dream' also comes from a story about dreams. The legendary novel of the Tang Dynasty, The Legend of the South Ke Taishou, tells such a story:

One day, a person named Chunyu Apples birthday, he in front of the big locust tree and friends drink music, the result of drinking drunk, was helped by friends to the porch nap. In a trance, it seemed that two purple messengers invited him into a carriage, and the carriage galloped toward a hole under a big locust tree. He came to the 'land of Dahuai 'an'. The prime minister of the country personally went out to greet him, the king also promised the princess to him, recruited Chun Yufen as the emperor's son-in-law, and appointed him as the 'South Ke County governor.'

After Chun Yu fell in office, as expected, he was diligent and loved the people, the South Ke County governance political and people. After twenty years, he was respected by the king and supported by the people. Unexpectedly, the neighboring Danluo country suddenly xing war, invading Dahuai An country. Chun Yu Fen rate soldiers struggle against the enemy, but the result is repeated defeats. It was a double whammy. My beloved wife died... Chun Yufen lost the king's favor from now on. His heart was unhappy, willing to ask the king to allow him to go back to visit his family, the king agreed, and sent the original two purple messengers escorted back. Chun Yufen returned home, only to see his body sleeping in the porch, can not help but be startled, wake up. It is 'only half a day in the world, twenty years in the dream.'

According to the Book of Jin, Cao Cao dreamed that three horses were eating at the same trough, and Cao Cao had doubts, worried that the Sima family would rob the Cao family of the world.

We dream every night, whether we like it or not. Life is always followed by many dreams. Because there is a dream, life is colorful, passion ripple; It is because of dreams that life is unpredictable and elusive. So, what is a dream?

This mysterious stranger in the night, for thousands of years, has always troubled mankind, its mystery attracted more people to dream, to interpret the dream. It can be said that of all the mysteries of mankind, there is nothing more fascinating than those that come from the human heart.

Our Chinese dream interpretation, like the Chinese civilization, also has a long history. According to legend, Xuanyuan of Huangdi wrote the book of Zhan Dream. In the pre-Qin period, some famous scholars began to think rationally about dreams. Later, people in the past dynasties have discussed dreams from different aspects, and it is precisely because of these people's continuous debate on dreams that the study of dreams in our country has gradually expanded horizontally and gradually deepened vertically. In the exploration of dreams, we Chinese have our own ideas and ways, and put forward some theories. For example, 'Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic' said 'lewd hair dream', 'Zhou Li' said 'six dreams', 'Lietzi' said 'emotional reciprocation', and Wang Qingren's 'brain qi block' and so on.

Although generations of people continue to study dreams, and also made some achievements, but because the dream is too mysterious, people still can not fully understand it, there are many things according to the theory of the book can not be explained, some people think that the dream is the soul away from the body, is an independent spiritual activity. This is also the fundamental reason why the superstition of occupying dreams has produced and even affected Chinese history for thousands of years. Dreaming has a long history in China. In the slavery era of the Yin State, dreaming is a major tool to observe the good and bad of the country and decide the state affairs, so the superstition of dreaming has become a major part of the official religious theology. But after the Spring and Autumn period, occupying dreams gradually became a kind of secular superstition. On the one hand, occupying dreams still maintained its own characteristics, on the other hand, it infiltrated with other religious theology.

The exploration of dreams can be traced back to primitive society, when primitive people associated dreams with the soul, which was inseparable from the low productive conditions at that time, as to how they connected the dream with the soul, it is difficult to find direct evidence now. However, if we speculate according to the intelligence level of primitive people and primitive national religious customs, we can find that the primitive people's dream concept came into being in this way.

When primitive people lay asleep in their caves, their bodies did not leave the caves. But why did he go hunting in the wild with his companions in his dream? According to the imagination of people at that time, the self that is hunting outside in the dream is certainly not the body of the body lying in the cave, but should be a body without the body, not bound by its own body. When primitive people dream, they must also dream of their dead relatives. But haven't the bodies of our loved ones been buried long ago? Isn't it already rotten? What kind of thing is a man who has no body and is not bound by the flesh?

After a long time of reflection, the idea gradually formed in the primitive mind that in the human body there was something that ruled the body but not the body, that such things could leave the body during sleep, that such things were active outside during dreams, and that they continued to exist and be active after the death of the body. Therefore, people can still hunt in the wild in their dreams, and they can still see those who have died. Later they called this thing 'the soul.'

Primitive man formed the idea of soul through thinking about dream; In turn, they use the idea of the soul to explain dreams and dream images. In this way, the primitive conception of the dream soul is inextricably linked. On the basis of the concept of dream and soul, it is connected with the concept of ghosts and gods, so the superstition of dream signs is formed.

At first, primitive people were unconsciously superstitious about dream signs, they only cared about those dreams that were closely related to their lives, but later, as human activities became more and more complex, people had to predict more and more things, so that more and more dreams were included in the prediction. Therefore, divination superstition changed from spontaneous superstition about certain dream signs to conscious search for various dream signs, and from habitual interpretation of dream signs to complex discrimination of dream signs.

According to the existing literature, the Yellow Emperor is the earliest figure mentioned in divination. Huangfu Mi in the 'Imperial Century' said: 'The yellow emperor dream of wind blowing the dirt of the world are gone, and dream of people holding a thousand Jun crossbow drive sheep.' After waking up, the Yellow Emperor analyzed himself: 'The wind is the order, and the rulers are also; Dirt off, after also. Is there a family name in the world? Fu Junnu, different force also; Drive sheep thousands of herds, can herdsmen for the good also. Is there a shepherd by the name of power in the world?' So 'in accordance with the two accounts for', after the wind, force Shepherd two famous ministers.

The dream occupation activities in The Times of Yellow Emperor and Yao Shunyu are only ancient legends, but it was not until the Yin Dynasty that Chinese history had reliable written records of dreams and dream occupation. There are many records about Yin King's dream in oracle bones. The king of Yin is always asking whether his dream has disaster, and whether his dream has disaster. On the one hand, this shows that the king of Yin is very concerned about the good and bad of his dreams, on the other hand, it also shows that the dream of the king of Yin occupies a very important position in his life.

However, dream legends and dream occupation activities were extremely frequent in the period before the Zhou people destroyed the Yin Dynasty. It is said that King Wen and King Wu of Zhou had many good dreams at that time, which foretold that Zhou was bound to replace Yin.

It is said in the Imperial Century that King Wen once dreamed of 'the sun and moon shining on his body'. The sun and moon are the symbol of the emperor, which obviously means that King Wen is commanded by heaven. 'Yi Zhou book Cheng Xun solution' on the record of the dream of the elder brother: 'The elder brother (the mother of King Wu) dream of the court production of thorns, prince hair (King Wu) take the catalpa of the court of Zhou, the tree in the palace, catalpa into pine, cypress, mulberry, oak. Sleep sleep to tell King Wen, King Wen and prince Fa occupy Ming Tang, King and prince Fa and worship Ji dream, by the great order of the Emperor heaven God.'

According to dream interpreters, thorns are shrubs, and this dream represents Yin Shang. Catalpa is a tree, this dream represents the Zhou people. The catalpa in the spine into pine, cypress, mulberry, tussah and other trees, the meaning of this dream is very clear, that is, let people think that the Emperor God gave the 'big life of the Shang' to Zhou people.

'Shang Shu · Tai Oath' also recorded the king of Wu when King Zhou's oath: 'I dream of association I Bu, attack in Xixiang, Sho Shang Bi Ke.' What kind of dream did King Wu have? It is not told in Tai-Oath. In the book Mozi Feicong Xia, it is said: 'King Wu practiced 阼 and dreamed of the three gods saying: 'If you have destained the Yin Zhou in wine, the valley will attack it, and you will surely gamp it.'' King Wu and attack.'

It can be seen that occupying dreams occupies an extremely important position in the political life of Zhou people, and the king of Zhou is more respectful to dreams than the king of Yin. During the Yin and Zhou dynasties, all state affairs had to be decided after divination. During the reign of the king of Zhou, there was no full-time official of dream occupation.

In the Yin and Zhou dynasties, people's superstition about dreams was not very deep, but in the Spring and Autumn Period, people took dreams very seriously. According to the seventh year of Zhaogong in Zuo Zhuan, Kong Chengzi, Minister of State of Wei, dreamed that Uncle Kang, the ancestor of the State of Wei, said to him: Make Yuan the king. Shi Chao also dreamed that Uncle Kang said to him: I will order Gou and stable to help Renyuan. Because their dreams matched, after the death of Duke Wei Xiang, Kong Chengzi made Yuan the king of the kingdom, and he was Duke Wei Ling.

Zhao Gong seventeen years also recorded that Han Xuanzi had dreamed that Jin Wen Gong pulled Xun Wu, and gave Lu Hun to him, so he decided to let Xun Wu lead the army. After Xunwu destroyed Lu Hun, he specially dedicated the captives to the temple of Duke Wen of Jin.

Kong Chengzi set up the king and the commander of Han Xuanzi's order, they all took the dream as the basis, that Uncle Kang said in the dream, is the command of the ancestors, and the activities of Jin Wen Gong in the dream, is the will of the ancestors. This shows how deeply people believed in dreams at that time.

However, in the Warring States period, due to the development of the productive forces, the role of man was fully demonstrated, and atheism was also more active than ever. At that time, the market for dreams in the ruling class suddenly decreased. It is rare to see documents from this period about which king and his officials used dreams to determine political and military activities. In the ideological circle, whether it is the Confucian representative Mencius and Xunzi, or the legalist representative Shang Yang and Han Feizi, as well as the Tongjia, the military and the Yin-yang school, there is no description of their superstition about the occupation of dreams. In spite of this, the influence of dream occupation on the people is still very far-reaching.

After the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the market of dreaming is indeed getting smaller and smaller, but because the mystery of the dream itself has not yet been revealed, this superstition is still passed down from generation to generation. One difference, however, is that superstition itself has changed with The Times. Compared with the pre-Qin period, the occupation of dreams after the Qin and Han Dynasties had significant changes in three aspects:

The first is that the occupation of dreams has gradually changed from an official religious belief to a secular superstition among the people. As mentioned above, in the Yin and Zhou dynasties, occupying dreams was first a belief of the rulers, and occupying dreams appeared as a system of the state. Whenever major events occurred, the Yin and Zhou Kings would conduct divination in a serious manner. Even when they don't have dreams, they pray to God. Dream occupiers or dream officials, they belong to the national government officials, have a certain political position. However, after the Qin and Han dynasties, as the market of occupying dreams in the upper ruling class gradually shrank, occupying dreams generally did not have a place of elegance, and there was no longer a position of dreaming official in the official system. Since then, the occupation of dreams is mainly popular in the folk, and gradually become a secular superstition, such as: divination, fortune-telling, feng shui, face and so on.

Secondly, as a kind of superstition, it communicates, penetrates and utilizes each other with other religious beliefs. Taoism, which originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, did not have the content of occupying dreams at first, but after the two Jin Dynasties, Taoism began to absorb the superstition of occupying dreams and serve its main theme. 'Bao Pu Zi' so recorded, before Li Shaojun died, 'Emperor Wudi dream with a total of Song high mountain, halfway, there are messengers riding the dragon festival, from the clouds. Yun Tai B please Shaojun. Emperor Jue said, 'As I dreamed, Shaojun will leave me.' 'A few days, and Shaojun said that he died of illness.' Ge Hong recorded this dream, apparently through the dream omen superstition, preach immortal, can ascend to heaven.

Tang Dynasty 'Youyang Zhuan' pointed out: 'Daomen dream soul demon, or called three dead.' So far, Taoism has had its dream theory. 'Soul demon' Yunyun, originated from the traditional dream soul concept; 'Three corpses' is a Taoist creation. The Taoist so-called 'three corpses' refers to the three worms that haunt the human body and are called 'three corpses God'. They were called Peng Gou, Peng Zhi, Peng Jiao, or they were also called Qing Gu, Bai Gu and Blood Gu. It is said that 'three corpses' can remember people's faults, every day to Gengshen, when people sleep, and 'slander God'. 'The God of slander', that is, to report to the Jade Emperor. Therefore, Taoism always insists that 'people have no dreams' and 'real people have no dreams'. Therefore, the Taoist priest stayed up all night on the day of Gengshen to prevent the 'three corpses' from 'slanderous God'.

Buddhism, which originated in India, began with a belief in dream signs and dreams. When Buddhism was introduced into China, it joined hands with the traditional Chinese superstition of dreaming. However, the Buddhist dream superstition is mainly to promote the Buddhist good and evil, karma. For example, the so-called 'dream of Heaven and man' in Shanjian Law believes that if good people practice good things, heaven will show good dreams, so that good roots can grow; When the wicked do evil, the sky has nightmares, causing them to turn from fear to good. The so-called 'dream' is that if you often think good things, you have good dreams, and if you often think bad things, you have nightmares.

While infiltrating into Taoism and Buddhism, the superstition of occupying dreams is also deeply influenced by Taoism and Buddhism. Among the surviving fragments of some dream books in Dunhuang's remains, there are special 'Buddhist Faxian Chapters', 'Buddhist and Taoist Music Chapters' and related signatory poems. However, some promote Taoism and some promote Buddhism, which also reflects the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism in twists and turns. For example, 'Dreaming of Laozi, people think' and 'dreaming of monks and nuns, you cannot get what you want' clearly reflect the tendency of Taoism and its denigrating of Buddhism. For example, 'Dreaming of monks and nuns, great happiness', 'dreaming of the great butu, great wealth', 'Dreaming of Bodhisattvas, the Lord has long life', these are obviously promoting Buddhism. In addition, Buddhist mantras and Taoist charms have also entered the dream unconsciously.

The last change is that as an art, dream occupation has gradually become complex, ingenious and smooth. From the materials provided by Zuo Zhuan and the Book of Songs, it can be seen that the pre-Qin Dynasty used a 'direct interpretation' way to interpret the dream meaning, and the good and bad luck of the later generations are also directly fulfilled with the dream plot. For example, in the seventh year of Zhaogong, Mu Zi 'dreamed that heaven had pressed down and Fu Sheng', and Niu Zhiyu came to help him, and indeed he met Niu Zhiyu later. In the same year, the people of Zheng dreamed that Boyou was going to kill Dai and Duan, and as expected, Dai and Duan were killed one after another.

Another way is 'translation', but mainly 'symbolic' solution. In this way, the dream image does not directly express the dream meaning, and the content symbolized by the dream image is the real dream meaning. For example, Lu Qi's dream of shooting the moon in the sixteenth year of Chenggong, and Shengbo's dream of involving the Huan in the seventeenth year, the two dreams do not indicate that they will 'shoot the moon' and 'involve the Huan', and the 'shoot the moon' and 'involve the Huan' only have symbolic meanings. The bear dream and the snake dream in the Book of Songs do not indicate that the dreamer will see the bear and the snake, and the bear and the snake are only a symbol of the birth of a boy and a girl. But these two ways are very simple, whether effective, the dreamer is also easy to judge. But some dreams are not easy to interpret, so, dream superstition to exist and develop, the way of dreaming also appear new ways.

After the Qin and Han Dynasties, in addition to the 'direct interpretation' and 'transfer interpretation', many new solutions were derived from the 'symbolic method', such as 'connection method', 'analogy method', 'deciphering method', 'solving word method', 'harmonic method' and so on. In addition, there is a new occupation law of 'anti-saying'. 'Anti-saying', as the name suggests, is that the dream is bad for good, and the dream is bad for bad, and the dream is like the reverse to explain the dream. In this way, whether a dream is 'directly explained' or 'translated' or 'reversed', the occupier has great initiative and flexibility. In this way, it is easy for the occupiers to attach the association at will according to the needs of the time, and they can deal with it freely if it should not be fulfilled.