A Dream of Imperial Splendor in a Millennium of Chinese Finery

A dream after a life well lived, or a life within a dream? By chance, Yun Hua visited a new exhibition of precious artifacts at a museum. She was fascinated by one of the ornate pieces of jewelry, as if she could feel its breath across a thousand years. After the visit, Yun Hua returned home, full of curiosity and exhausted, and promptly fell asleep. In her dream, she traveled through time to an ancient dynasty. She became a woman of distinguished birth, the very owner of that ornate jewelry. During her life, she witnessed many important historical events, including the rise and fall of dynasties, advances in technology, and the flourishing of culture. She also found love. When she awoke, Yun Hua was back in the modern world, lying in her familiar bed, her heart full of questions and emotion. Though brief, the dream had felt like living an entire lifetime. No one can say for sure whether Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreamed it was Zhuangzi. Yun Hua's experience is much the same: was everything she experienced a dream, or another kind of reality?