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Li Bai's Pen

Three dreams, 700 & c.715 CE, by poet Li Bai and his mother

Woodblock print of dream by Li Bai's mother, of him grown up and riding a dragon; c.1601.


The birth of China's greatest poet, Li Bai, was foretold by his mother's dream of her future son riding a red dragon, according to Lie Xian Quan Zhuan (Complete Biographies of the Immortals, compiled by Wang Shizhen, 1601).

The New Tang History tells that before giving birth, the mother of Li Bai also dreamed about Chang Geng (the planet Venus), the brightest (whitest) star, so she named her son Li Bai (bai meaning white).

The Strange Stories in the Years of Kai Yuan Tian Bao (Kai Yuan Tian Bao Yi Shi Ji) tells that "When Li Taibai [Li Bai] was young, he had a dream in which the brush pen he was using suddenly blossomed. Later his reputation was indeed spread throughout the universe." This story is also recorded in The Speech Garden (Tan Yuan).

EDITOR'S NOTES

Dreams of riding a dragon aren't rare in Chinese tradition, but most are interpreted as portending a political or military rise, as the dragon is associated with the emperor. Because it's so commonly attributed to mothers of prominent men in Chinese history, it may be just a later attribution or accretion.

But dreaming of Venus is both quirkier (hence more likely to be really Li's mother) and more specific: 'outshining' everyone with no hints of either politics or war.

Li Bai's own dream is multiply attested and so far as I know unique, hence likely to be truly his own; even the image seems Li Bai-ish.

While ancient China believed in fate and treated dreams as primarily oracular, I'd argue the flowering-pen dream is more like career advice--not predictive so much as directive. Study up!

You don't dream that, and think "I'm gonna be a great merchant!" Or warlord. Or dentist.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: The Interpretation of Dreams in Chinese Culture by Fang Jing Pei and Zhang Juwen (2000) pp.4 & 72 (the dragon dream); p.136 (the Venus dream); p.115 (the flowering-pen dream).


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