| Chapter : | Section 1 (Written Between 1995 AND 2004) |
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The difference between the “marriage of flower and stone” and the “marriage of gold and jade” lies in the fact that one is love in heaven, whereas the other is love in the mundane world. Lin Daiyu is innocent, whereas Xue Baochai is worldly. If we may compare Jia Baoyu to Adam, Lin Daiyu, not Xue Baochai, would be comparable to Eve.
24.
Lin Daiyu cries often. At first glance, the love between her and Jia Baoyu is characterized by sentimentality, but deep down it is full of significance. Of all the love relationships described in Chinese literature, it is the most significant and richest in cultural connotations. All the conversations and quarrels they have, particularly those communications conducted through poems, are pregnant with significance. The two best long poems in Dream of the Red Chamber are Lin Daiyu’s “Burying the Flowers” and Jia Baoyu’s “The Spirit of the Hibiscus: An Elegy for a Girl.” The fact that they admire each other’s poems shows that they truly understand each other. When these two marvelous poems are made public for the first time, each of them has an audience of only one person. As true poets, Lin and Jia do not care about the social effect of their works, and they would seek one person’s approval rather than everyone’s admiration.
25.
In Chinese literati paintings, the realm of the recluse, far from the mundane world, is considered superior to the realm of the immortal. People, however, usually only know that the realm of the recluse can be found in nature, and they do not know it can also be found in human relationships. In Dream of the Red Chamber the relationship between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu is extremely intimate, yet it exists in a state that partakes of the realm of the recluse in a subtle yet tangible manner. Between them, they never discuss people and events in the mundane world, pushing aside both politics and society. The disputes in the mundane world never enter their conversations, much less their souls.