Zhuangzi Dreams of a Butterfly

The Transformation of Things

After dreaming he was a butterfly, Zhuangzi asks: was he the dreamer or the dream?

Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly, fluttering without cares, knowing nothing of Zhuangzi. When he woke, he lay there wondering: was he Zhuangzi who dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming it is Zhuangzi? The riddle dissolves the boundary between self and world — the philosopher’s most famous meditation on the unity of all things.