A certain span of time from the mid-sixteenth century through the end of the seventeenth century (that is, the late Ming and very early Qing period) has been the most generative of dream-related writings and visual materials in Chinese history. This lecture will (1) outline this “arc” of dream-interest in late-imperial cultural history, (2) assert the importance of studying dreams as part of the history of consciousness, (3) suggest a method of approaching such a historical mega-phenomenon, and (4) illustrate that approach with examples from the verbal and visual culture facts of the Ming-to-Qing transitional era.

About the speaker:

Lynn Struve is Professor Emerita of History and of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her longstanding, general interests lie in the political, intellectual, and cultural history of the late Ming and early Qing periods in China. In recent years she has focused on the salience of dreams and dreaming in China from the mid-sixteenth through the seventeenth century, research which has born fruit in a forthcoming book, The Dreaming Mind and the End of the Ming World (University of Hawaii Press).