Five Spirits, Five Organs, and Five Phases
Volume Two of Menglin Xuanjie places dreams in a traditional framework of Five Spirits, Five Organs, and Five Phases. The text sorts dream images into related categories and follows how they move from one category to another. Its references to the organs are historical dream-theory language, not modern anatomy or medical conclusions.
Generating and controlling sequences
The text pays close attention to order. When categories appear in a sequence understood as generative within the Five Phases, it calls the movement “direct transmission.” A sequence understood as controlling follows a different traditional judgment. The important thing is not one image alone, but its relationship to the images before and after it.
Auspiciousness can contain difficulty, and the reverse
The volume also describes a smooth-looking sequence that may abruptly turn, and a difficult-looking one that may contain a turn toward relief. Even inside this traditional system, a dream is not treated as a one-image, one-answer chart.
Dream order and transition
Cyclical, changing, and mixed transmissions all put process first. As cultural reading, the useful question is how a dream begins, shifts, and connects its images—not how to detach one object from the rest of the dream.
Historical theory only
This page presents historical dream theories involving yin-yang, the Five Phases, and organ correspondences for cultural and historical understanding. It is not modern medical explanation, diagnosis, or treatment advice.
Editorial note
This English article is an editorial translation and adaptation based on the Chinese source.
Traditional Sources
Sources referenced on this page
Menglin Xuanjie · 夢林玄解
身有五脏，脏有五神，神有五运。夫人梦，则魂交神为之也。发于五脏，窍于泥丸，万事万物，各属本脏。乃传本神，正气旺，是相生。相生者为吉为休；客邪胜，是相克者为凶为悔。 凡先梦脾属事物，而后及肺之所属；梦肺属事物，而后及肾之…