Despite decades of meticulous research devoted to the Tang-Song transformation, existing scholarship tends to feature a linear progress from the aristocratic Tang society to its meritocratic Song counterpart. As recent historians have noted, neglect of the cultural particularities of the transitional period has resulted in difficulties explaining changes between the ninth and the eleventh centuries. Against this background, this paper investigates a specific phenomenon in tenth-century China. A variety of men of letters claimed that they suddenly became masters of literature after being awakened by atrocious or abnormal dreams. Closer examination shows that all of them were either of obscure origins or from peripheral regions of the empire; without exception, they were all the first generation of their families to pursue a literary career. Advocating mythologies of personal enlightenment in dreams, they claimed that even though they lacked a family tradition in literature, they were ordained with supreme literary talents through supernatural encounters. Ultimately, through massive elite migration, more and more men from afar arrived at the political and cultural capitals of Luoyang and Kaifeng. Their dream stories reshaped the cultural landscape and marginalized the old aristocratic discourses according to which supreme literary talents were passed down from generation to generation within a family.
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