Sleep of Heroes and Villains: Types of Dreams and Their Uses in a 17th-Century Full-length Novel

International audienceNota Bene and abstract: Nota Bene: This 2015 conference paper has been the starting point of a later publication in French: "Sommeil du juste et du scélérat : les usages narratifs du rêve dans un roman fleuve chinois du xviie siècle", Récits de rêve en Asie Orientale, Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 42, 2018, p. 153-178. The reader wishing to find the full references of this paper as well as a more developed version is kindly invited to refer to the 2018 article.Abstract: This paper focuses on the study of two dreams that play an important part in the narrative structure of a 1620s novel, Chan zhen yishi禪真逸史. Though these dreams are initially interpreted by the protagonists according to the oneiromantic knowledge of the time, it is the elements that these initial readings overlooked that will have a greater effect on the later developments of the tale. Without contesting the value of the divinatory knowledge of dreams, the novelist thus proves himself capable of undertaking original explorations, religious and psychological, in the world of late imperial Chinese dreams