Quick Answer: Who Is Lin Daiyu?
Lin Daiyu (林黛玉, Lín Dàiyù) is a poet and a central figure in Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦, Hónglóu Mèng). She comes to live with her grandmother’s family and grows close to her cousin Jia Baoyu (贾宝玉, Jiǎ Bǎoyù). Their attachment has a counterpart in the novel’s opening story about a plant and the tears it will repay.[1][2]
- In Chapter 23, Daiyu explains why she wants to bury fallen petals.[1]
- In Chapter 27, Baoyu overhears her poem as she returns to the flower mound.[3][4]
- Chapter 97 of the printed version places her decline beside Baoyu’s wedding to Xue Baochai (薛宝钗, Xuē Bǎochāi).[5][6]
The flower scenes are among the clearest places to hear Daiyu’s own voice.
When petals fall on Baoyu’s book, he puts them into the water. Daiyu has another idea of where they should go. That small disagreement gives the novel a way to show how differently the two cousins imagine what happens to something after it leaves their sight.
What the Debt of Tears Means
In Chapter 1, an attendant waters the Crimson Pearl Flower (绛珠仙草, Jiàngzhū Xiāncǎo). The plant becomes a spirit who says she will repay him with the tears of a lifetime when they go to the human world. Read alongside Daiyu’s closeness to Jia Baoyu, the promise makes gratitude inseparable from sorrow.[2]
Two Flower Burial Scenes
In Chapter 23, Daiyu worries that the stream will carry the petals to a dirty place. She brings a hoe, a bag and a broom so she can gather the petals and bury them in a clean place. Baoyu has been reading Romance of the Western Chamber, and the garden scene brings private reading and the fallen blossoms together.[1]
Chapter 27 gives the action a voice. Baoyu comes back to the flower mound and stops when he hears Daiyu. In the Song of Burying Flowers (葬花吟, Zànghuā Yín), she moves from mourning the petals to wondering who will bury her. The change gives the scene a place in Daiyu’s story beyond the care of a garden.[3][4]
The novel’s register of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling also makes Daiyu’s fate a subject for readers to interpret.
Daiyu’s Ending in the Printed Version
Chapter 97 puts two events side by side. Daiyu burns her poems and grows weaker. The family prepares Baoyu’s wedding to Xue Baochai while he expects to marry Daiyu. The contrast makes the household celebration and the loss in Daiyu’s room unfold in parallel.[5]
The chapter belongs to the last forty of the 120-chapter edition first printed in 1791. Their authorship remains disputed. An adaptation can keep Daiyu’s death and change what she does or knows before it.[6]
From Garden Scene to Painting and Opera
Fei Danxu’s painting of Daiyu burying flowers makes her garden task the subject of a single image. The same scene became a role performed by Mei Lanfang in Beijing opera. The garden tools help identify the image. The performance gives an audience Daiyu’s voice as well as her gesture.[1][7]
FAQs About Lin Daiyu
Which chapter contains Daiyu’s flower burial poem?
Chapter 27 contains the poem. Chapter 23 gives the earlier conversation about gathering and burying the petals.
How is Lin Daiyu related to Jia Baoyu?
Daiyu’s mother was the daughter of Grandmother Jia, who is also Baoyu’s grandmother. Daiyu and Baoyu are cousins.[1]
Is Daiyu one of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling?
She is one of the central figures in the novel’s register of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling.
Источники
[1] Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. Lin Daiyu
[2] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 1, Chinese text
[3] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 27, Chinese text
[4] Paul Rouzer. Daiyu’s flower burial poem, Chapter 27
[5] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 97, Chinese text
[6] Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. Controversy Over the Last 40 Chapters
[7] Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. Mei Lanfang Sings Daiyu Buries Flowers