There was a woodcutter in the State of Zheng who was chopping wood in the wilderness when he encountered a startled deer. He killed the deer and hid it in a ditch, covering it with some banana leaves, intending to take it home after he finished his work. But later, he forgot where he had hidden the deer and could not find it no matter how hard he searched. So he thought to himself, “This must have been a dream.” On his way home, he kept muttering about the incident to himself.
A passerby overheard his mutterings, went to look where he had described, and indeed found the deer under the banana leaves. He took it home.
Upon arriving home, the passerby said to his wife, “A woodcutter dreamed of finding a deer but couldn’t locate it. Now I’ve found it—the woodcutter’s dream was real.” The wife said, “You must have dreamed that the woodcutter got the deer, right? Is there really a woodcutter? But since you actually found the deer, your dream must be real.” The passerby replied, “Anyway, I found the deer—who cares whether he dreamed it or I did!”
As for the woodcutter, after returning home, he kept thinking about the deer. That night, he actually had a dream in which he saw where the deer was hidden and the passerby who had taken it home. Early the next morning, he followed what he saw in the dream and indeed found the traveler’s home. The two men argued, eventually taking the matter to a judge.
The judge said to the woodcutter, “In the beginning you actually killed the deer, but claimed it was a dream; later, you dreamed of the deer but said it was real. The passerby actually got the deer, and you argued it was yours. The passerby’s wife, however, claimed her husband merely dreamed of the deer and that no one had actually killed it. But there is indeed a deer here; you two should divide it equally.”
When the ruler of the State of Zheng heard of this, he remarked, “Is the judge dividing the deer in a dream?” and asked for his chancellor’s opinion. The chancellor replied, “Whether it is a dream or not is not something a man like me can discern, perhaps only the Yellow Emperor and Confucius could. Since they are both gone now, who else can we turn to for judgment? Let’s do as the judge says.”
Origin: “Lie Zi: King Mu of Zhou”
#26 蕉鹿之梦
郑国有个樵夫在野外砍柴，偶然遇到一只受惊的鹿，他把鹿打死然后藏到一条沟里，上面盖了些芭蕉叶，准备砍完柴回家时带回去。可后来他自己也忘了藏鹿的地方，怎么找也找不到。于是他想：“这大概是我做的一个梦吧。” 回家的路上，他嘴里还一直念叨着这件事。
路上有个人听到了他的自言自语，就按他说的去找，结果真的在芭蕉叶下找到了那头鹿，便把它拿回了家。
到家后，路人对妻子说：“有个樵夫梦见得到了一只鹿却找不到，现在我得到了，樵夫做的梦竟然是真的。” 妻子说：“是你梦见樵夫得到了鹿吧？难道真有个樵夫？不过既然你真得到了鹿，那你的梦就是真的。”路人说：“反正我得到了鹿，管它是他做梦还是我做梦！”
樵夫回家后，还是一直想着那头鹿。结果夜里他真做了一个梦，梦见了藏鹿的地方，也梦见了拿走鹿的那个人。第二天清早，他照着梦境去找，果然找到了那个路人的家。两人争了起来，最后闹到法官那里。
法官对樵夫说：“你开始真的打到了鹿，却说自己是做梦，后来在梦里梦到这头鹿，却又说是真的；路人真的得到了这头鹿，你认为鹿是你的；路人的妻子又认为路人做梦梦到了这头鹿，根本没有人真打到了鹿。但是现在确确实实有一只鹿在这里，你们两个平分好了。
这件事被郑国国君听到了，国君评价道：“这个法官是在梦里面分鹿吗？” 并问国相的看法。国相说：“梦或者非梦，不是我这种人能够分辨的，而能分辨的人大约只有黄帝和孔丘吧，现在他们都不在了，还能找谁来分辨呢，就按法官的说法做吧。”
出自《列子·周穆王》