The Book of Wei says Lu Yuan Ming, who lived in the east of Luoyang, was a very good friend of Wang You. One evening Lu dreamed that Wang was offered him wine and bid him goodbye. In the dream they wrote several poems to each other, as was the custom of good friends parting.

When he awoke, Lu remembered ten words from the poem in the dream, which said, "Since I am leaving now, we can no longer enjoy being together."

Lu felt that something strange was happening, and three days later learned that his good friend had been killed in an uprising on the very night of his dream.

EDITOR'S NOTE

The dream-tales from this era are mostly nightmares--all upheaval and death. So the tone of this one surprised me. Regret, not fear, pain or horror; as if Wang You knew his spirit would not be snuffed out, merely going where his friend could not yet follow. But then, if a dying man can link with his friend from afar, it implies our migrant spirits may not need bodies at all; death is simply a longer dream.

The alternative is to believe Lu is psychic but alone here--not contacting his friend, only sensing his death. But why accurately report the fact of a death and falsify the friend's experience of that death? That his dream undeniably got Wang's death right adds weight to its claim--or is it Wang's claim?--that death is a parting but not an extinction.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: The Interpretation of Dreams in Chinese Culture by Fang Jing Pei and Zhang Juwen (2000) p.148; primary source, The Book of Wei, a history of Wei State (386-550 CE), when China was divided and turbulent. I'm sorry I can't date it more exactly.

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