The later Qing Dynasty critic Wang Xilian also emphasized the importance of Jia Baoyu's role in the scene where Dai Yu buried the flowers. Wang Xilian believes that the last sentence of the "Funeral Flower Yin": "The flower falls and the person dies without knowing" is crucial to understanding the story of the stone (39). This sentence not only foreshadows Daiyu's eventual death, but also foreshadows the desolation of her death. "Funeral Flower Yin" reflects the reason for Lin Daiyu's isolation and helplessness, and also reflects the "ending" of Daiyu's dying life; Lin Daiyu's death also foreshadows and reflects the ultimate despair of the Jia family.
Flower Dynasty Festival
Jia Baoyu's sadness when he heard "Funeral Flower Yin" also has a prophetic effect in the narrative of the stone story. When he learned of Lin Daiyu's death, Jia Baoyu vaguely predicted his future despair. Wang Xilian believes that Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu's funeral flowers are symbols of their unrealized love. In chapter 27, two minor figures, the servant Xiaohong and Jia Baoyu's relative Jia Yun, are also important. Unlike Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, Xiaohong and Jia Yun concluded their marriage at the end of The Book of Stones. However, in chapter 27, their role is not so important compared to the main role played by Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu. Cao Xueqin used the marriage of Xiaohong and Jia Yun to contrast the tragedy of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. Cao Xueqin, with Xiaohong and Jia Yun as a foil, uses the death of these flowers as a symbol of Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu's future destiny in "The Book of Stones".
Mango seeds
As a critic and theorist of our time, Yang Yi pointed out that other details related to the scene of Lin Daiyu's burial of flowers in chapter 27 are also related to the origin. In Chapter 27, which Cao Xueqin begins with the festival of the flower god, during the flower god's festival, the girls celebrate the departure of the flower god, which is part of the mango seed, and at the end of the mango seed, the flowers will fall. While the other girls admired the beauty of the flowers in the garden and Xue Baochao chased the butterflies, Lin Daiyu was left alone on the barren mountain. Lin Daiyu prefers to bury flowers rather than celebrate the blooming flowers, which shows her sympathy for the beauty of the shortness of life. Like those flowers that bloom briefly but wither, every beautiful female character has a tragic ending. Lin Daiyu is the only one who foresees a tragic ending, which shows her superiority in intelligence over other characters. Lin Daiyu despairs not only of her own personal destiny, but also of the tragic fate of women as a collective identity.
Twelve solar terms
bibliography
WANG,XI Lian. Compilation of Rare Materials on the Study of the Dream of the Red Chamber. People's Literature Publishing House. Beijing.2001.
Yang,Yi. Chinese Narratology. People's Literature Publishing House. Beijing.1997.