Butterfly Dream

2300 years ago, philosopher Zhuangzi encounters a woman fanning a grave on his way back from a 10-year journey. She hopes to speed up to dry the grave so that she will be allowed to remarry. After her rebuttal, the woman gives her fan to Zhuangzi and leaves.

Arriving home, Zhuangzi tells Tianshih, his wife, about the woman and gives the fan to his wife, telling her that she can use it on her own husband’s grave in the future. Insulted, Tianshih vows that she will kill herself with an axe if proven unchaste. At this moment, Zhuangzi unexpectedly falls dead due to a severe headache.

In the dark night, Zhuangzi has transformed himself into a prince. He then asks to keep vigil at the funeral altar for seven nights. The Prince and Tianshih have fallen in love as the vigil nears its end. The Prince suddenly suffers a severe pain in his heart, which requires a dead man’s brain.

To save her lover, Tianshih agonizes to break open the coffin to fetch her husband’s brain. At this moment, Zhuangzi comes back to life. In her great humiliation and regret, Tianshih applies the axe to suicide in the arms of Zhuangzi.

In something like a dream, he saw Tianshih transforming into a butterfly. After waking, he asks himself,“Was it the butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzi, or was Zhuangzi dreaming of the butterfly?”