extraction.chuang_tzu.great_awakening_life_dream
---
record_id: extraction.chuang_tzu.great_awakening_life_dream
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/daoist/project-gutenberg/chuang-tzu-giles.md
passage_locator:
label: Chuang Tzu, Chapter II, Great Awakening
start: lines 1942
end: lines 1950
translation: Herbert A. Giles, Project Gutenberg eBook
notes: Stable line locator from canonical Markdown; public-domain translation.
canonical_text:
quote: |
Those who dream of the banquet, wake to lamentation and sorrow. Those who dream of lamentation and sorrow wake to join the hunt.
By and by comes the Great Awakening, and then we find out that this life is really a great dream.
language: English
quote_policy: quoted
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage contrasts dreams of banquet with waking sorrow and dreams of sorrow
with waking activity.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The passage says dreamers do not know they are dreaming while they dream.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: The passage says the Great Awakening reveals that this life is a great dream.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:4
text: The speaker calls Confucius, the interlocutor, and himself dreams within the
same paradox.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: dreamers
description: People who misread their dream-state as waking reality until later
awakening.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: sage
description: Future figure invoked as able to explain the paradox of dream and awakening.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
roles:
- id: role:1
label: beings mistaken about waking and dreaming
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The passage says dreamers do not know they dream and that ordinary life is
later seen as dream.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: interpreter of paradox
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The passage invokes a future sage to explain the paradox.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: Great Awakening
literal_form: awakening that reveals life as dream
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
- initiation
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: sym:2
label: great dream
literal_form: life understood as dream
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- duality
- wisdom
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Great Awakening reveals waking life as dream
summary: The passage uses dream reversal to argue that ordinary waking confidence
may itself be a dream until a Great Awakening discloses it.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: awakening from the world-dream
taxonomy_refs:
- wisdom
- initiation
basis: The passage frames wisdom as awakening from the mistaken condition of ordinary
life.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
confidence: high
cautions: This is philosophical awakening, not a ritual initiation episode.
- id: motif:2
label: waking and dream as reversible states
taxonomy_refs:
- duality
basis: The passage repeatedly reverses the apparent hierarchy between dream and
waking.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
confidence: medium
cautions: Duality is present as epistemic contrast rather than paired characters.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage can be compared with awakening/liberation motifs because it imagines
ordinary life as a mistaken state disclosed by a higher awakening.
claim_level: same_function
target: comparative awakening and liberation motifs
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The passage is Daoist and should not be collapsed into Buddhist enlightenment
without separate evidence.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: quote
locator: Chuang Tzu, Chapter II, lines 1942-1950
quote_or_summary: The passage says dreamers do not know they dream and that the
Great Awakening reveals this life as a great dream.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/daoist/project-gutenberg/chuang-tzu-giles.md
rights_note: Public-domain Project Gutenberg source text.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: low
notes: The dream and awakening language is explicit; cross-tradition comparisons
should be cautious.
reviewer_status:
status: draft
notes: Draft extraction; verify chapter locator and whether this should be promoted
as a wisdom or initiation motif.
extracted_by: Codex
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: Seed extraction for Daoist awakening, dream, and epistemic reversal.