Zhang's Dream

That night, Zhang fell asleep by a stream, lulled by the water gliding over the stones.

The mist rose gently, and he found himself in a garden paved with tiles. It seemed narrower than he remembered, as though some pathways had faded away; he counted sixty-four.

On one of them stood the General. The walls of the pavilion that once sheltered him had vanished, and he gazed at the horizon, free. With a gentle gesture, he dismissed one of his two Advisors, who bowed before leaving the garden along a bamboo path. The Elephants stirred in turn, slow and silent, until they dissolved into the mist.

Then, from the river, two great Pandas emerged and took the vacant places. Behind them, three additional Soldiers rose from the reeds to join their comrades.

It was then that a woman appeared, as though sculpted from the vapour: the Empress. She moved now in straight lines, now in furtive sidesteps. And under her gaze, even the humblest soldier seemed called to surpass the role he had been given.

Zhang tried to speak, but the woman of mist placed a finger on his lips, and whispered:

Remember.

When he awoke, dawn was filtering through the stems. In the damp earth, Zhang discovered he had traced a perfect square, marked the position of each piece, and drawn a line for the river. Half of the drawing was covered by the stream's water, exactly up to that line—as though the dream and the world had met.

He showed this sketch to his family, then to the entire village.

Some saw in it merely the modernisation of an ancient game, others the memory of a dream they thought they had forgotten.