“因梦生子”是一种比较特殊的情节类型，它屡见于各类典籍，是作者为主人公构建身世的第一个步骤。作为一种奇异的受孕或生育机制，它得以生成的条件是“梦”，这正是其区别于其他生育情节之所在。宗教的影响是这种情节类型得以形成其独有色彩的重要环节，它对此种情节完成了内容与形式两方面的塑造。“因梦生子”从感生神话发展为小说中的出生描写，在内容及主题上渐趋丰富的同时，形式上的价值也越来越得到凸显，并逐渐在转世小说中充当衔接几世的关键情节。本文试图以“因梦生子”情节较常出现的文学形态为分类依据，研究其在政治神话、神怪小说与世情小说中的不同体现，以期全面分析和呈现此种情节类型的面貌。　　　第一部分主要探讨“因梦生子”情节的形成及功能，阐述此种情节在其最初的形态——帝王政治神话中的体现。它由古老的感生传说发展而来，到汉代被统治者加以利用，并与当时风行的占梦、谶纬之术结合，成为天子符命的证据，由此成为历代帝王降生神话的固定模式，且梦象多为天、日、龙。以“因梦生子”作为最常见的出生方式，是统治者一种自我正名的手段，其目的是为政权的合法性寻找依据。　　　第二部分重点探讨“因梦生子”情节在神怪小说中的体现。汉代以降，因梦生子情节从政治神话延伸至神怪小说与世情小说，并各自显现出不同的特点。神怪小说中的因梦生子情节多受到佛、道二教的影响，表现出相应的宗教色彩和神秘氛围，其描写人物因梦而生的场景往往兼具佛道二教的特点，体现出佛道两教的互渗。神怪小说中的因梦生子情节又体现为两种走向：在汉魏六朝志怪小说中往往以宣扬因果报应和佛法灵验为主题，结构上作为媒介的价值也初具端倪；在明代神魔小说中则表现为俯拾即是的以“八相成道”之某几相为母题的情节，“果报”逐渐为“修行”所代替。　　　第三部分探讨“因梦生子”情节在世情小说中的体现。世情小说中的因梦生子情节一方面在内容上仍以宣扬因缘果报为主，另一方面其形式上的价值越来越得到凸显，并逐渐形成为转世故事中一种常见的连接两世或几世的情节结构，为转世故事增添了些许宗教情怀。

"Born out of dreams" is a kind of comparatively unusual plot types, frequently seen in kinds of ancient books and records, which is the first step of making an identity of the roles by the writers. As a strange mechanism of pregnancy and bearing produced by dreams, it differs from other reproductive stories. The influence of religion is an important link of its uniqueness, which make the stories both content and form. Developed from induced-born mythology to description of birth, born out of dreams increasingly rich in content and motif as well as form, and is going to be the key plot linking several ages in reincarnation novels. My paper will regard literary form which is more repeatedly owning born out of dreams as a standard, to find the differences among political myths, ghost novels and realistic novels leading to a comprehensive analysis and presentation of this kind of type.　　　The first part is mainly about the shaping of the type, which is the basis of study that the plot in the prime form of empire political myth. This kind of type, developed from ancient induced-born myth and utilized by rulers in Han dynasty and combined with the oneiromancy and seducing which were popular at that time, is considered as evidence of symbol of empire and turned into fixed mode of born-myth of successive empires. The images of dreams are always the heaven, the sun and the dragon.　　　The second part is about the type in ghost novels. Since Han dynasty, it was used as the fixed mode of being born of emperors, whose dream images were connected with the heaven, the sun and the dragon. After Han dynasty, with their own different characteristics, this kind of plot extended from political mythology to the weird fiction and the secular novels. The weird fictions of han-wei and the Six Dynasties were not only influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, showing the religious colour and mystious atmosphere respectively. The scenes describing the person who were born out of dreams represented the mutual extension of the two religions; but stories in weird fictions also displayed two trends: the one is the theme of karma and the Dharma are written in the weird fiction, the other one is the value of it as media in structure started. However, genies fiction of Ming dynasty universally focused on the theme of Shakyamuni's eight stages; therefore, cultivation gradually took the place of karma.　　　The third one is about the type in realistic novels. The plot, on one side still preached the karma;on the other hand, the value of its pattern became more and more obviously. At last, it gradually became the plot structures of reincarnation stories which linked two or more generations, adding some religious colour to the renicarnation stories.