The Image of Lin Daiyu as Symbolic of the Poetic Sentiments ofAncient Chinese Literary Mind
作为中国古代文士心灵史象征的黛玉形象

The tragic image of a cuckoo dying from non-stopping heartbroken crying and bleeding has always been an ideal symbol of the classical Chinese poetic sentiments. Cao Xueqing's Lin Daiyu in A Dream in the Red Mansion perfectly exemplifies this image. Tears of sorrow that she chants into her poems reverberate the collective tragic sentiments of poets of all times. Her frailty and helplessness signifies a complete loss on the part of the Ming and Qing literary mind of the once glorious masculine majesty of Han and Tang Periods. Lin Daiyu, therefore, carries with her a double-sided symbolic image of the classical poets, with a devoted poetic pursuit on the one side and a tragic homeless spiritual pilgrim on the other.