Dream Meanings

Just like the shadow, the dream is common and mysterious, illusory and real. If the dream is illusory, the characters and things in our dreams are still vivid in our mind after we wake up; if the dream reflects the reality, it's hard for us to find the characters and things completely consistent with the ones in our dreams. Sometimes, we dream about what we have on our mind during the day; sometimes, we encounter the characters and things we have dreamed about during the night. Our ancestors clearly knew the mystery of dreams, thus the dream culture was created.

Dream culture is an indispensable component to the ancient Chinese culture and it is widely popular in the folk. The Interpretation of Dreams by the Duke of Zhou (周公解梦zhōu gōng jiě mèng), an extremely popular book about the interpretation of dreams, was written by the later generations in the name of Ji Dan, the Duke of Zhou. The book lists all kinds of dreams and predicts the good or bad luck based on the dreams. The Duke of Zhou in the book often appears in the Confucian classics and in the dreams of Confucius. Therefore, in long-time Confucianism dominated China, the Duke of Zhou is inevitably and directly linked with the dream culture. In Chinese culture, dream is often known as the dream of the Duke of Zhou or dreaming of the Duke of Zhou. The Interpretation of Dreams by the Duke of Zhou is not necessarily scientific but at least it is not superstitious.

Based on the content and causes of dreams, ancient Chinese people classified the dreams into many categories, mainly including:

Straight Dreams
It means you encounter the characters and things you have dreamed about during the night. For example, you haven't seen your friend for a while and you have dreamed about him/her during the night, then you see him/her in the day. This kind of dream is called the Straight Dream.

Contrary Dreams
It means what you have dreamed about is contrary to the reality.

Happy Dreams
It refers to the dreams caused by favor or joy. You have something happy in your heart that you even laugh in the dream.

Missing Dreams
Generally, it means the dream caused by missing or recalling someone.

Symbolizing Dreams
This kind of dream doesn't directly express the meaning but symbolizes something. For example, you have dreamed about reaching for the sky which is actually impossible; here, the sky is symbolic and it symbolizes virility, dignity and monarch.

Sleeping Dreams
It refers to the dream caused by what you have said, seen and done when you are awakening.

Temperament Dreams
It means the dream with different dream images caused by your character and temperament.

Personal Dreams
It means the symbolic meaning of the same dream varies with the social status, gender, age, etc. of the dreamers.

Sense Dreams
It means the dream caused by climate factors, namely the dream out of your sense on the outside climate.

Seasonal Dreams
It means the dream caused by seasonal factors.

Borrowing Dreams
It means the dream in which the God or ancestor appears to foreshow the good or ill luck, disaster or happiness.

Entrusting Dreams
It means the dream caused by the induction between people. For example, the good or ill luck, disaster or happiness of one person appears in the dream of another person, vice versa; or two people in different places dream about the same thing.

Illness Dreams
It means the dream predicting your illness. From the TCM perspective, this kind of dream is caused by the imbalance of Yin-Yang and five elements.

Ghost Dreams
It means the nightmare with horrible dream images. Most of the ghost dreams are caused by the wrong sleeping posture or some diseases.