Reflections on Dream of the Red Chamber By Liu Zaifu

They are immersed in their feelings rather than in social relations, and their relationship is devoid of worldly considerations. Marked by a connection to the realm of the recluse, the state of this relationship is a poetic one that makes even their quarrels poetic.

26.

In Dream of the Red Chamber Lin Daiyu possesses foresight, whereas Jia Baoyu possesses hindsight. Though extremely intelligent, characters such as Xue Baochai and Wang Xifeng are, in fact, lacking in insight. That means they can never come to a thorough understanding of life or the universe. Lin Daiyu is the first to understand the importance of having nothing to do with the mundane world, and she in turn inspires Jia Baoyu. Of all the several hundred characters in Dream of the Red Chamber, Daiyu and Baoyu are the only two who achieve the final enlightenment.

27.

Happiness comes naturally and cannot be willed. In philosophy, nature stands in opposition to will. Because of the great happiness derived from bidding farewell to the will to palace power, Sakyamuni always smiles. Zhuangzi also gains great happiness when he discovers the way of nature, a great happiness that enables him to beat a basin and sing when his wife dies. By rejecting abstract concepts and achieving intuitive understanding, Huineng gains great happiness as well as great freedom. When Tao Yuanming returns to the countryside and feels like a bird just released from a cage or a fish in a pond just allowed to go back to deep water, he also gains great happiness and does not feel the ruefulness Wang Wei and Meng Haoran feel. While falling in love with Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu goes through a process in which she pays the debt of tears, a process that involves will, sentimentality, and great happiness that comes after the climax of sentimentality. Paying the debt of tears results in beauty, not suffering. It is a tragedy that she sheds all her tears, but it is, at the same time, a final deliverance. With her yearnings for the moon, Lin Daiyu finally gains great freedom as she leaves the human world manipulated by will. Unfortunately, this message is not emphasized in the last forty chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber.