"Confucius and you are both dreaming!"

Such is the claim of Zhuangzi, in his Great Sage Dream anecdote:

“He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; he who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is dreaming he does not know it is a dream, and in his dream he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know it was a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman – how dense! Confucius and you are both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle. Yet, after ten thousand generations, a great sage may appear who will know their meaning, and it will still be as though he appeared with astonishing speed.”

Read more about the Great Sage Dream, in relation to Zhuangzi's more well-known Butterfly Dream, in my new essay and review of Robert E. Allison's book Chuang-tzu for Spiritual Transformation.