A Butterfly's Dream: A Taoist Parable by Chuang Tzu

The Chinese philosophy of Taoism plays an important role in understanding Chuang Tzu's parable "The Butterfly's Dream." The story begins when a philosopher dreams he is a butterfly. His is disoriented by this transformation until other butterflies welcome him into their group and he begins to behave as the other butterflies in accordance to his appearance. He takes in their sensual pleasures and carefree way of life. He comes to enjoy his life as a butterfly until he wakes from his dream and is startled by reality. But, upon reflection, he realizes that his waking life could be for others a butterfly's dream.

The parable follows many of the precepts of Taoism. Taoists believe that humanity lost its way when it was led astray from this harmonization, and for the dreamer in the parable, this is a return to this harmonic accord. There is no division between dream and consciousness, between human and animal, for they are all a part of one. The dreamer realizes that in order to be one with natural creation he must break down these artificial barriers. When he wakes he "is bitterly tormented" because "[b]utterfly life is so carefree" (Martin 23). This divisive understanding between human life and butterfly life is defined earlier by the dreamer's reduction of human life by its complete opposition to the Great Way, or the natural harmonization of creation. Butterflies, as he comes to realize in the dream, "did not appear to him to have a warlike nature, worries of life, fears of death, and complicated feelings such as jealousy" (ibid). These aspects of human nature, the Taoists believe, have come about precisely because humanity has strayed from this harmonization. The parable, therefore, reveals that humanity is ignorant of the ways of creation and thus behave in ways that disrupt that harmonization.