Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han dynasty, took Bo Ji as his concubine. Bo Ji was at the court for over a year but never had a chance to be intimate with the emperor.

One night she dreamed she saw a huge dragon resting on her stomach.

The following day the emperor summoned her. When she told the emperor of her dream he said that the dream was indicative of noble future for her. Later she gave birth to his son who was to become emperor Hui. She was subsequently titled Tai Hou, mother of the emperor.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Some 40 years earlier, Liu Bang's own mother had dreamt of mating with a dragon, and her family took it as a sign her son would found a dynasty--which he did. Bo Ji may have known this story. Doesn't necessarily mean she faked her own dream; you dream in the symbols of your time and place. But the similarity may have prompted her to tell the Emperor.

Wikipedia says Bo's family was relatively humble, as Liu Bang's had been. He reigned only seven years, dying in battle; Bo took charge of the education of all the likely heirs, not aggressively pushing her own, and she was a positive influence through decades of the early Han Dynasty--a chain of cautious, sensible, model emperors still considered some of China's best. Liu Bang fought and died to establish the Han, but much of the credit for the era's flowering and stability rests with Bo Ji.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: The Interpretation of Dreams in Chinese Culture by Fang Jing Pei and Zhang Juwen (2000) pp. 71; primary source unstated. Photo of statue of Bo JI by Dingar.

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