wàng mèng
Also rendered: Reckless dreams (exact, and it is odd English) · Delirious dreaming (clinical, and it fuses dream with delirium)
Reviewed · 2026-10-18
At a glance
The wild dreams that follow the reversal of scant qi, and the sign that the spirit has lost its ground. The chapter says 是以少氣之厥，令人妄夢，其極至迷 — so the reversal of scant qi makes a man dream wildly, and at its extreme he is utterly confused. This is not the same as the five viscera’ dreams that follow: those have a viscus to name, a colour, a season, and a corresponding dream; this one has no viscus, only a deficiency of qi and a spirit that will not stay in place. The sequence is exact: scant qi, then reversal, then wild dreaming, then at the extreme confusion. It is the point at which a dream stops being a sign and becomes a symptom of the spirit.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| This site | wild dreams | dreams without a ground in the body's order |
| Literal | false dreams | exact for 妄, and it suggests dreams that lie |
| Clinical | dream disturbance | clear, and it is modern and vague |
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