Escaping the End of Times

New Release Discount: We are pleased to offer a 20% discount for Escaping the End of Times at our website
on or before 31st December, 2025

Escaping the End of Times is a book where history meets psychology. It invites readers to explore the intricate relationships between dreams, politics, and the Chinese writing system in early modern China.

Thoroughly researched and written in an accessible manner, this book presents a series of historical encounters that reveal how Ming scholars countered instability by compiling and editing dream texts. Readers learn how these scholars translated their dreams into action, used the past to bolster their status, reaffirmed their preferred societal order, merged myth and history, and interpreted their dreams and the dreams of others through creative techniques grounded in scholarly tradition.

By combining detailed research with captivating storytelling, this book not only brings the world of late Ming dream analysis to life but also demonstrates the relevance of the past to the stories we tell now about ourselves and our own dreams.

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This is a fresh look at a chapter in the history of dream interpretation that has been little discussed in English language sources. Vance brings her own grace at expression to uncover the code of unconscious cultural creativity that Ming intellectuals found in their dreams.

In this captivating and methodologically innovative book, Vance immerses readers in the dream world of the Ming. Bringing historical insight to bear on personal experience, she inspires readers to reflect on the enduring power of dreams and memory to shape social identity and self-expression.

An exquisitely told tale of another time with deep resonance for our own. Marginalized and disempowered in the social and political chaos of late Ming China, educated literati turned to dreams for meaning, understanding and escape in the “end of times.”

It is a truly unique history book, yet so much more than that. It draws you in with an engaging analysis of how people sought certainty in flux and found control through creative play. Vance writes as if she and the reader inhabit the same world as the Ming people, imbuing the book with irresistible charm.