療疾、判案與悟道：明清自撰年譜中的夢兆經驗與異人遭遇=Curing Diseases, Solving Criminal Cases and Becoming Enlightened: Dreamscape Experiences and Strange Encounters in Ming and Qing Autobiographical Chronologies
Examining numerous first-person narrative texts from the Ming and Qing dynasties , this essay not only focuses on why and how the scholars wrote about themselves, but also focuses on the circumstances in which the authors faced their identity crises, how these circumstances were represented and reconstructed through diverse literary forms, and how the boundaries of their identities were inscribed, outlining their life aspirations and thereby establishing the coordinates of their subjective experience. This essay takes as its central research focus an unconventional category of autobiography, autobiographical chronologies, with an eye on the ways in which Ming and Qing literati reflected upon past events and carefully recorded the particular dream experiences and encounters with strangers in their lives. The point is, these writings indicate a high level of interest in omens and portents and whether or not they came true, as well as a deep belief that these dreams and encounters conveyed hidden and profound mysteries of life. Regardless of the veracity of these accounts, through them the researcher can gain access to the earnest attitudes that literati had towards their dreams and encounters with strangers, and their intense desire to interpret their potential significance as they wrote their autobiographical chronologies. Through these texts, we can glimpse the deeper preoccupations and perceptions of Ming and Qing literati within the cultural atmosphere of the day.
