"Did You Have a Dragon Dream? Ancestors Bought and Sold Dreams for 1000 Nyang"

Two 19th Century Dream Interpretation Sale Documents Revealed for the First Time

Our ancestors were confirmed to have traded 'good dreams' (Gilmong) since the Joseon Dynasty. Recently, documents officially recording the trade of good dreams were revealed for the first time.

The Korea Institute of Korean Studies, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced on the 8th that it discovered two 'dream trading documents' from the Joseon era while organizing approximately 650,000 pieces of data.

Two Joseon Dynasty dream sale documents released by the Korea Institute of Korean Studies on the 8th. Korea Institute of Korean Studies

These documents record that in February 1814, Park Gisang, who lived in Daegu, sold his good dream to his younger relative Park Yonghyeok for 1,000 nyang. At that time, Park Gisang had dreamed of a blue dragon and a yellow dragon ascending to the heavens, and on March 3 of the same year, Park Yonghyeok, who was about to leave for Hanyang to take the civil service examination, happened to purchase this dream. The payment was to be made after Park Yonghyeok passed the exam and obtained an official position, with two relatives attending as witnesses during the process.

The institute estimated that 1,000 nyang was equivalent to the value of 200 seok (approximately 30 tons) of rice at the time. However, it is unknown whether the transaction was actually completed, as there are no records confirming whether Park Yonghyeok passed the civil service examination.

Another dream trading document is from February 1840 during the reign of King Heonjong of Joseon, involving a good dream of a person named Shin living in Bonghwa, Gyeongbuk. Shin dreamed of a blue dragon and a yellow dragon intertwined, and judged this dream to be a good one, selling it to a person named Kangman. Shin was a maid in the Jinju Kang family, and Kangman was a younger relative of the house owner.

Shin received blue, red, and white threads as payment for selling the dream.

Jung Jongseop, director of the institute, explained, "Buying and selling good dreams is a custom familiar to us even today. Generally, dream trading is conducted verbally, so the dream trading documents discovered this time are extremely rare materials."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.