Stranger in Chinese Dream Culture

An unknown person in a dream makes many people wary. Yet the Meng Lin Xuan Jie reads the stranger rather warmly — he usually arrives carrying "the new."

The stranger as an unknown waiting to be revealed. A familiar face only confirms an old tie; the stranger is the variable — a new bond, a new opening, a new trouble, any of these may come with him. The phrase "a new matter" names that sense of "the unknown approaching" exactly.

The hospitality of "a guest from afar." "A stranger entering the door, a noble guest arrives" carries China's old regard for guests — "is it not a joy when friends come from afar?" A stranger at the threshold reads as the gladness of an honoured guest, not as a guard going up.

A gift from a stranger: an unexpected gain. "Gives you something, an unexpected gain" is telling: a gift of unclear origin might be suspect elsewhere, but in these lines it reads as a chance fallen from the sky.

Menace, and then caution. The one reversing line is "acts violently, guard against the petty." The same stranger, his expression changed, flips the omen — show a cruel face and he's no honoured guest but a hidden arrow to watch. Chinese dream reading is always watching the face.