Many readers know that Samuel Taylor Colerdge reported that he dreamed his poem "Kubla Khan" in an opium-induced sleep... less well publicized is how the real palace of the ruler came to be constructed. History records that the Khan himself dreamed the site and design of the "stately pleasure dome." Coleridge read a description of its construction before he fell asleep, but not one that told of its dream origin; no one translated this into English until years after Coleridge's dream. The events are eerily similar, but related only by coincidence.

Kublai Khan dreamed of a grand yet delicate palace on a sloping cliff by a deep chasm and river. He was so determined to bring the vision to life that he sent emissaries to find a site that matched the dreamed setting. Even before they located it, he sketched the design for his builders. When the searchers spotted the appropriate hill, the Khan's domed palace was erected just as he had dreamed it.

SOURCE: The Committee of Sleep by Deirdre Barrett, 2001, p.18-19. No primary source stated.
DATE: estimated from Wikipedia's history of Shangdu (Xanadu); palace was built 1252-4.

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