During the Warring States period, a woodcutter from the state of Zheng was gathering firewood in the wild when a startled deer came running toward him. He quickly struck and killed it. Fearing discovery, he hastily hid the carcass in a dry moat, covering it with brushwood. Delighted, he returned to his work. But soon, he forgot where he had hidden the deer and, unable to find it, began to believe it had all been a dream.
As the woodcutter carried his firewood home, he couldn't stop telling everyone he met about the deer he had found and lost. A passerby heard the story, followed the woodcutter's directions, and found the deer for himself, taking it home.
After returning home, the passerby was quite pleased and told his wife, "Just now a woodcutter dreamed he killed a deer but forgot where he hid it. Now I've found it—that woodcutter's dream was real!"
His wife looked puzzled and said, "Perhaps you dreamed of a woodcutter finding a deer? Where is this woodcutter? Now that you've actually found the deer, isn't it your dream that came true?"
The husband, unwilling to argue with his wife, said, "I got the deer based on the woodcutter's words—what does it matter whether he dreamed it or I did?"
When the woodcutter returned home, he couldn't accept losing the deer and kept brooding over it. That night, he dreamed of the exact spot where the deer was hidden and even saw the stranger who had found it. The next morning, following his dream, he went straight to the stranger's house and indeed found the deer there. The two men then argued fiercely over who rightfully owned it.
The dispute grew so heated that they could not resolve it themselves, so they took their case to the magistrate in charge of laws and lawsuits, demanding a verdict.
After hearing both sides, the judge addressed the woodcutter: "You truly found the deer but claimed it was a dream; then when you actually dreamed of the deer, you insisted it was real. The passerby genuinely took your deer, yet you argued with him over it. His wife, however, claimed he only recognized the deer in a dream. So no one truly possessed the deer. Yet here it is, real and present. Therefore, I split it in two—one half for each of you."
When this case was reported to the ruler of Zheng, he found it quite amusing and said, "Haha! I'm afraid the judge is also dreaming of dividing the deer for others!"
One day, the ruler of Zheng discussed the case with his prime minister and asked for his opinion. The prime minister replied, "I cannot distinguish between dreams and reality either. Only the Yellow Emperor and Confucius could tell whether one is awake or dreaming. Now that both are dead, who can still discern the truth? Let us simply follow the judge's verdict."
Later, the idiom "Seeking the Deer Under the Banana Leaf" came to describe illusions, fickle gains and losses, and a state of confusion like being in a dream.
Source: *Liezi*, Chapter "King Mu of Zhou"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "覆鹿寻蕉" came to describe illusions, fickle gains and losses, and a state of confusion like being in a dream.