Richard E. Strassberg's Wandering Spirits is a lucid and accessible translation of an extraordinary work. Composed on the cusp of a new fascination with dreams on the part of late Ming and Qing intellectuals, Chen Shiyuan's 1562 volume Mengzhan yizhi (Lofty Principles of Dream Interpretation) provides a substantial and wide ranging collection of lore on dreams through centuries of Chinese writing.
If we had any doubts about the attention paid to dreams in traditional China, or about the sheer numbers of recorded oneiric experiences and interpretations, the examples in Chen's volume – numbering nearly 700 and culled from almost three hundred literary sources – would put those doubts to rest. This material is organized into two parts, an inner section of 10 chapters focusing on theories about dreams, and an outer section of 20 chapters in which examples of dreams are arranged according to theme. Major sources for Chen's collection include Confucian classics, philosophical texts, dynastic histories, medical volumes and selections from some of China's most important writers and statesmen including Han Yu, Sima Guang, Su Shi and Ouyang Xiu. Rather than a focused argument on the nature of dreams or detailed instructions on a specific method of dream interpretation, this volume instead asserts the significance of dreams through the quantity and pedigree of its cited examples.
Parts of Chen's text simply list references to dreams with particular elements or themes. For modern readers not familiar with traditional Chinese sources, passages like the following may be difficult to follow: “Someone dreamt that he had been given a beard, and he became a grand councillor. Someone dreamt that somebody else selected another nose for him, and he finished his career as a bureau director. Li Guang dreamt that his mind was suffering. Liu Dan dreamt that he lost his hair” (p. 131). Chen's original interlinear commentaries include source references along with extensive transcriptions of dreams. This translation greatly increases the ease of reading by conveniently reproducing Chen's notes as endnotes to each chapter, thus consulting the notes we find that the one who became a grand councillor was Zhou Bida and that this episode comes from the Song dynastic history. The terseness of the original citations makes clear that the intended audience for Chen's work was educated readers for whom many of these sources and examples would have been familiar. Strassberg further argues that the difference in length of some topical chapters, with a chapter on official examinations nearly double the length of the chapter on longevity and destiny, points to an audience of examination candidates and imperial degree hopefuls (pp. 35–36).
Strassberg's introduction to the translation provides a brief survey of the history of Chinese dream lore, beginning with examples from Shang period oracle bones and dream interpretation manuals dating from the Warring States period, and tracing major contributions through Han rhapsodies (fu), Six Dynasties tales of the strange (zhiguai), Buddhist and Daoist theorists and thinkers from the Song and early Ming. These background materials also serve to position Chen's argument that dreams are real, important, and worthy of investigation, and further that dream interpretation at its best is not a mechanical process but depends on the insight of the interpreter (pp. 1–37 passim). Figures as diverse as Confucius and Pu Songling understood dreams to be an integral part of the life experience. The notion that dreams influenced significant life decisions is perhaps illustrated most eloquently in Chen Shiyuan's own story. A successful metropolitan degree candidate at the age of 28, Chen may have suddenly resigned his official post only five years later because of a series of dreams (pp. 27–28).
Despite the quantity of material and importance the topic, surprisingly little has been published on traditional Chinese dreams in Western languages in the last couple of decades. The latter half of the 1980s saw a number of works, including Michael Lackner's monograph and volumes edited by Roberto Ong and Carolyn Brown. Marion Eggert's Rede vom Traum (F. Steiner, 1993) is one of the few scholarly volumes published since. Thus this translation of one of the most influential works on dreams and dream interpretation in the later imperial period is especially welcome. This book will be particularly useful to those without access to Chinese-language materials in a number of fields including comparative literature, history, anthropology, psychology and religion. Undergraduate and graduate students wanting to know more about the world of Chinese dreams will consult this volume.
Richard Strassberg has opened a window for readers of English into the vast, complex, deeply important and influential world of dreams in China in the mid-16th century. This is an elegantly produced book that will attract students, scholars and curious readers alike.
