A Record of a Dream Fulfilled夢驗記
說夢似怪誕。然周官有六夢之占。又五經子史。多皆言夢。夢苟有驗。說之何害歟。予昔嘗掌記完山也。平時略不詣城隍祠宇。一日。夢至其祠拜堂下。似若與法曹同拜者。王使人傳曰。記室上階。予登廳事再拜。王以布帽緇布襦衣坐南榮。起答拜。引之使前。俄有人持白酒來斟。柸盤亦草草。與飮良久。謂曰。聞牧官近者新印十二國史。有諸。予曰。然。曰。何不貺予耶。予有衆兒。欲令讀之。以數件見惠。可乎。予曰。唯唯。又曰。官吏之首某甲者。可人也。請護之。予又曰。唯唯。予亦門禍福何如。王指路上車奔而折軸者曰。子猶是也。不出今年。去是州矣。俄自持鞓帶二事贈之曰。子當貴。請以此贐之。及覺。遍體流汗。時按廉使郞將盧公。使牧官新印十二國史。又官吏某有不愜吾意者。欲因事斥之。故有是語。明日。召其吏令印史二本遣獻。因貰其罪不問。是年。果爲同寮者所愬見罷。始悟車折之言。然投閑凡七年。未得調一官。困躓莫甚。復不信其言矣。雖歷踐華要。至登三品。亦未之甚信也。曁今進拜相位。然後乃大信當貴之言之正若符合不違也。噫。神道冥感。亦有時而信。豈皆虛也哉。時閼逢敦牂涂月日。誌。
To speak of dreams seems strange and empty. Yet in the Offices of Zhou (周官) there is a method for divining six kinds of dreams, and in the Five Classics and the philosophers and the histories dreams are spoken of often. If dreams do truly have their fulfillment, what harm is there in speaking of them?
Long ago, when I was Clerk of the Registry at Wansan (完山), I never once went to the shrine of the city god. One day in a dream I came to that shrine and was bowing below the hall, and it seemed that I bowed together with the Judicial Officer. The king sent a man to tell me: "Let the Secretary come up onto the terrace." I went up into the hall and bowed twice; and the king, who wore a hempen cap and a black hempen jacket and had been sitting beneath the southern eaves, rose and bowed in return and drew me forward.
Presently someone brought raw rice wine and poured it, and the cup and the tray too were shabby. We drank together a good while, and then the king said: "I hear that the prefectural office has lately printed anew the History of the Twelve States (十二國史). Is there such a thing?" I said: "There is." "Why do you not give one to me? I have several children and wish them to read it; how would it be to bestow a few copies?" I said: "Yes, yes." He said again: "The head of the clerks, so-and-so, is a man worth using; I hope you will look after him." I said again: "Yes, yes."
I also asked what my misfortune and good fortune would be. The king pointed to a cart that had been running on the road and whose axle had broken, and said: "You are like this. Before this year is out you will leave this district." Presently he brought two leather belts with his own hands and gave them to me, saying: "You shall surely become noble. I hope you will make these your travel money." When I woke, sweat ran over my whole body.
At that time the Surveillance Commissioner, Commandant Lord No (盧公), had had the prefectural office print the History of the Twelve States anew; and a certain clerk, besides, had something about him that did not answer to my mind, so that I had meant to put him out on the pretext of some affair — and this was why these words were spoken. The next day I called that clerk and had two sets of the history printed and sent them up as an offering, and thereupon released him from his fault and did not pursue it.
In that year I was indeed slandered by a colleague of my own rank and dismissed from office, and only then did I understand the words about the axle breaking. Yet having been cast aside into idleness for seven whole years without getting a single post, my hardship and my downfall could not have been worse than this, and so I no longer believed those words. Though I went on to tread all the splendid and vital posts and even rose to the third rank, I still did not much believe them. Only now, after rising to the seat of a chancellor, have I come greatly to believe that the words saying I should surely become noble did not go amiss, as though a tally had been matched.
Ah — the hidden working of the numinous Way has at times its trustworthiness; how should it all be empty? The time: written on a certain day of the twelfth month of the Gabo year.