Zhou Gong Jie Meng

The best-known Chinese dream book, named after the Duke of Zhou.

Zhou Gong Jie Meng means: the Duke of Zhou interprets dreams. It is the name of the best-known Chinese dream book, a collection of interpretations of dream images that is still widely consulted today in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Chinese diaspora, often half seriously and half with a smile.

The Duke of Zhou, Zhou Gong Dan, lived around 1000 BC. He was a brother of the founder of the Zhou dynasty and for a time ruled as regent for his young nephew. He is considered one of the great sages of Chinese history; Confucius admired him so much that he lamented he had not dreamt of the Duke of Zhou for a long time. That saying explains why his name became connected with dreams. The duke did not write the dream book himself: it was compiled centuries later, and many different versions exist.

The book arranges dreams in categories, such as heaven and weather, the body, animals, houses, the dead and spirits, and gives a short interpretation per image. Many readings play with sound. A fish, yu, sounds like abundance; a shoe, xie, like harmony; a coffin, guancai, like office and wealth. That is why a dream that seems frightening is sometimes read as favourable. In folk tradition the opposite of a bad dream is sometimes even expected.

The dream book is folk interpretation, not a religious text. It fits into a broader Chinese tradition in which dreams are seen as a message, as a sign of balance or imbalance, or as a reflection of what occupies the mind during the day. Philosophers such as Zhuangzi used dreams precisely to reflect on what is real.

On Dreamkin the readings from this tradition are therefore called Zhou Gong: they follow the folk interpretation of the dream book, and we present them as possibilities.