An analysis on the narrative and significance of dream in Zuo Zhuan = 《左傳》敘夢手法及其意義分析

Abstract

Zuo Zhuan is one of the outstanding historical annals about the Spring and Autumn period, which included a lot of description of dreams. It raised attention from numerous researchers and thus created a new topic. Dreams are mysterious, imaginary and predictive. Regarding to these characteristics, the author of Zuo Zhuan put dreams as a kind of historical materials. Dream took an important role in deciding people's action and making prediction about the future in Zuo Zhuan. It was a tool to promote courtesy and the message of good would be rewarded with good while evil with evil. On the basis of previous research, this paper will deeply study on the narrative and significance of dreams in Zuo Zhuan . The first chapter introduces the significance of this topic and classifies the nature of dreams in Zuo Zhuan. The second chapter describes the identity of people who involved in dreams, the narrative structure and the explanation of dreams. The third chapter is an analysis of the artistic characteristics of dream description in Zuo Zhuan, which mainly reflects on the detailed dream depiction and the narrative structure of space-time. The fourth chapter analyzes the connotation and influence of dream description in Zuo Zhuan on later literature.