Discuss "Zhuang Zhou's Dream Butterfly" and see its four major meanings

"Zhuang Zhou Mengdie" was made when Zhuang Zi, the main representative of Taoist school, was an official of Mengqi Garden.

According to Qianlong's "Yingzhou Fuzhi", "Qiyuan City is located in Sanli County, Hebei Province, which is the old Mengcheng; Zhuangzi is the Qiyuan official here." Mengcheng, located in the hinterland of Huanghuai Sea, is well-known as a sacred place of Taoist culture at home and abroad. It was called Qiyuan in ancient times. It was built in the Yin and Shang Dynasty and was renamed Mengcheng County in the first year of Tang Tianbao (742). It has a glorious history of five thousand years of civilization.

1. The source of "Zhuang Zhou Mengdie"

"Zhuang Zhou Mengdie" cites "Zhuangzi·Qiwulun": "The former Zhuang Zhoumeng was Hu Die, and the vivid Hu Die is also true! I don't know Zhou also. I don't know Zhou. Zhuang Ran Zhou Ye. I don’t know Zhou’s dream is Hu Die and? Hu Die’s dream is Zhou Yu? Zhou and Hu Die must be different. This is called materialization. "

​​To the effect: In the past, Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he became a butterfly, very vivid and lifelike. A butterfly, how happy and comfortable it is! I didn't know that I was originally Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly woke up, and in a panic, I knew that I was Zhuang Zhou. Did Zhuang Zhou become a butterfly in his dream, or did he become Zhuang Zhou in his dream? There must be a difference between Zhuang Zhou and Butterfly. This can be called the crop, my intercourse and change.

Zhuangzi turned into a lifelike butterfly in his dream, forgetting that he was originally a human, and only after waking up did he realize that he was still Zhuangzi. It is difficult to tell whether Zhuangzi became a butterfly in his dream or Zhuangzi in a butterfly dream.

2. Background of "Zhuang Zhou’s Dream Butterfly"

1, Dreamer Culture

Zhuangzi’s real name is Zhuang Zhou, with the word Zixiu, Song Kingdom Meng, ancestor is Song Dynasty monarch Song Daigong, one of the seven sons of Pre-Qin, one of the main representatives of Taoist school, and Laozi And called "Lao Zhuang". He used to be a small official in the Qiyuan Garden of Mongolia, and he was from the same era as King Liang Hui and King Qi Xuan. He is knowledgeable, and his scope of research and research is all-encompassing. His central idea originated from Lao Tzu's doctrine. Zhuangzi is good at writing words and describing the situation of things. He has written works of more than 100,000 characters, most of which are allegories under the covers. His works such as "The Fisherman", "Stealing the Foot", and "Pingpi" are used to depreciate the Confucian school and show that Laozi's doctrine is the purpose.

2, the personality of the dreamer

Zhuangzi is a noble and noble person who has no intention of fame and fortune. Therefore, including the lord, no one can use him. There is an allusion to support this character of Zhuangzi: King Chu Wei heard that Zhuang Zhou Xianneng sent envoys with generous gifts to hire him and promised him to be the prime minister of Chu. Zhuang Zhou smiled and said to the envoys of Chu State: "A thousand gold is indeed a generous gift; Qingxiang is indeed a noble and high position. Have you never seen a cow used for sacrificing heaven and earth? Feed it for several years and put it on The patterned silk and satin are brought into the Taimiao Temple as a sacrifice. At this time, even if it wants to be a lonely pig, can it do it? You leave as soon as possible. I will not be an official for life in order to be happy."

3. The meaning of "Zhuang Zhou's dream butterfly"

1, philosophical meaning

"Zhuang Zhou's dream butterfly" is a philosophical thesis put forward by Zhuangzi based on his dream. The philosophical topic discussed is "truth and illusion, human existence, human life and death".

(1) Reality and illusion

From the perspective of ordinary people, what a person sees and feels when he wakes up is real, and dreams are hallucinations and unreal. Zhuangzi thinks otherwise. Waking up is one state and dreaming is another state. Although the two are not the same, they are just a phenomenon. is a form and a stage in the "Tao" movement.

(2) The existence of people

Whether Zhou’s dream is Hu Die or Hu Die’s dream is Zhou, people must first exist before they have thoughts. Existence is real, thoughts are produced in reality, but thoughts themselves are illusory. Only after the reality of existence needs are met and existence is guaranteed, can people produce illusory thoughts. Therefore, when Zhuang Zhou raised the question of who dreamed of whom between it and the butterfly, his needs for existence must have been met, and his actual existence must have been guaranteed, before he raised this illusory question and thought.

(3) Human life and death

Zhuangzi believes that human life and death are nothing but a beautiful reincarnation, forgetting the good fortune of life and the fear of death, combining the soul with the Tao, and there is no so-called "end" and "loss." . Death is nothing but the return of the busy life to silence, back to the space between heaven and earth. looks like the end, but in fact it is back to the beginning.

2, literary significance

The story of "Zhuang Zhou Mengdie" is loved by later generations of literati because of its profound meaning, romantic feelings and broad aesthetic imagination. At the same time, it has also become the expression, life sigh, and homesickness of later generations of poets. It is an important part of many kinds of life insights and experiences, such as calm and leisure.

Later generations often used "Zhuang Zhou Mengdie, Zhuang Zhou Huadie, Diehua Zhuangsheng, Butterfly Dream, Butterfly Meng, Meng Butterfly, Mengdie, Huadie, Butterfly Hua, Hua Butterfly, Lacquer Garden Butterfly, Zhuang Shengdie, Butterfly into the pillow , Zhuang Zhoumeng, Meng Xuxu, etc. come to to describe the state of illusion and sleep, and it is also used to extol the freedom and nobility like butterflies.

3. Psychological significance

Psychology has the theory that a person who can go out and return freely in body and mind is a mentally healthy person, because a person’s physical and mental ability to go out means being able to establish contact with the outside world, and being able to return means being able to get inside oneself build connection. "Zhuang Zhou's Dream Butterfly" is a good example of free movement in and out of body and mind. Although it is difficult for Zhuang Zhou to tell whether Zhuangzi became a butterfly in his dream or Zhuangzi in a butterfly dream, he clearly knows that "Zhou and Hu Die must be different. This is called materialization."

is in the world of psychological symbols , often regards flying butterflies as a symbol of free love; butterflies are loyal to couples and have only one partner in their lives, which is a symbol of loyalty; butterflies are also regarded as auspicious and beautiful symbols, such as butterflies that love flowers are often used for sweet love and A symbol of a happy marriage; the rough body of the butterfly’s predecessor larva symbolizes real life, and the light color wings of the butterfly symbolize the spiritual world; the butterfly can also symbolize freedom, beauty, and success. The main symbolic meaning of the butterfly is the transformation from ugliness. The transformation of beauty.

4. The meaning of soul science

Some people say that "butterfly" is a dream of Chinese people, and the content of the dream is "people can have a beautiful soul". In ancient Chinese culture, there are many such "butterfly". Although these "butterflies" have good wishes, they have no power to fight. They can only pin their hopes on another world: the world in dreams, the world in fantasy. They use Taoist or Buddhist theories to tell themselves that "the other" world will be better. Dissatisfaction in life, they all seek compensation in the "other" world. Theirs is not enough to make them resist all the pains and troubles in life, so they use religion and fantasy to escape from the real world. The ancients also believed that death is not an end, but a transformation. The death of the human body may be the liberation of the soul, just like a butterfly flying out of a pupa. In Zhuang Zhou's thinking, death is nothing but a release from the shackles of the flesh and reality, and the butterfly is the most suitable image to express this meaning.