千古一梦:谈“黄粱梦”

“黄粱梦”出自唐代著名传奇作家沈既济的名作《枕中记》,约作于建中二年至兴元元年被贬官期间。就各方面影响来看,堪称千古一梦。《枕中记》今传《太平广记》和《文苑英华》二本,异文中值得特别提出的是黍与黄粱之别,后者便于在诗词用典中遣词造句,因此最为流行。《枕中记》的基本思想是人生如梦,这是古人基于人生经验形成的一种人生况味和哲理思考,这一思想导源于道家。《枕中记》脱胎于《搜神记》和《幽明录》中的焦湖庙柏枕故事,作者大大扩展了思想内涵,表现出士人对现实政治的怀疑、失望乃至批判,对追逐功名富贵的自我否定。但大梦难觉,说到底所谓人生如梦只是失意者的失落、迷惘、无奈。由于黄粱梦的巨大影响,古人在邯郸附近附会出卢生入梦之地黄粱店,并建吕翁祠,古来题咏极多。而在八仙信仰普遍流行的背景下,将吕翁附会为吕洞宾。

An Eternal Dream: on "Huangliangmeng"

"Huangliangmeng"(means "gold millet dream") comes out of the Zhen Zhong Ji(Reecord of a Dream) which is the masterpiece of Shen Jiqi,a famous romancist of Tang Dynasty,and was written during the second year of Jianzhong Period and the first year of Xingyuan Period,when he was relegated.According to its influences,it's really an eternal dream.Zhen Zhong Ji was handed down in Tai Ping Guang Ji and Wen Yuan Ying Hua.In the two variant records,the differences of "shu"(millet) and "huangliang"(fine grain or gold millet) are significant,and because the latter one is convenient for making words and phrases in the poems,it becomes the popular one.The essence of Zhen Zhong Ji is that life is just like a dream,which is the ancients' philosophical thinking based on the life experiences and rooted in the Daoism.Zhen Zhong Ji was emerged from the stories of "the pillow in the Jiaohu Temple" in Sou Shen Ji and Yong Ming Lu,so the author expanded the meaning of it in order to express the suspicion,despair and even criticize to the politics of reality and self-denial of following the fame and honor.However,it's hard to be awakened from the dream and the saying "life is a dream" is just the frustraters' loses and puzzles.Because of the huge influences of "Huangliangmeng",the ancients had interpreted the Huangliang Inn where the Scholar Lu had the dreamed near Handan by anology and built the Immortal Lu Temple where lots of poems were written there.Moreover,under the influence of belief in Eight Immortals in the legend,the Immortal Lu was regarded as Lu Dongbin.