Lin Daiyu

Who is Lin Daiyu? Lin Daiyu is the heroine of Dream of the Red Chamber: a brilliant, sharp-tongued, often sickly girl who loses her mother and moves in with her grandmother’s powerful Jia family. She is Jia Baoyu’s cousin and closest companion. Before she was born, the novel says, she was a fairy plant that vowed to repay him with tears.

The name

Traditional: 林黛玉 · Simplified: 林黛玉 (the same characters) · Pinyin: Lín Dàiyù

林 (lín), the family name, means “forest.”
黛 (dài) is a dark pigment that women once used to paint their eyebrows. That’s where her nickname comes from.
玉 (yù) means “jade,” as in Jia Baoyu’s name and the jade he was born with. The title of Chapter 19 (”the jade emits fragrance”) is a pun on it.

Daniel traces the name to a line by the Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi that compares a weeping beauty to a pear blossom in spring rain What’s In A Name?.

Other names so far:

Miss Lin (林姑娘): what the household calls her (Ch. 3).
Frowner (顰顰, Pínpín): Baoyu’s nickname for her the night they meet, because her brows look knit even when she isn’t frowning (Ch. 3). He credits it to a book that doesn’t exist. Baochai later calls her “Frowner girl” (Ch. 8).
Fragrant jade (香玉): Baoyu’s pun on 香芋, “taro” (Ch. 19).
Crimson Pearl (絳珠): her name in her former life (Ch. 1).

First impression

Daiyu arrives in Chapter 3, a motherless child determined to weigh every word so that no one will laugh at her. That evening she meets Baoyu, and the two of them think the same thing: I’ve seen this person before. Within minutes he has given her a nickname and asked whether she has a jade like his. When she says no, he hurls his own to the floor. → Lin Daiyu Arrives at Rongguo Mansion · Lin Daiyu Meets Jia Baoyu

The story so far

Ch. 1: A heavenly stone (later Baoyu) waters a Crimson Pearl Fairy Plant until it becomes a girl, and she vows, “I’ll use every tear I shed to repay him”. → Repaying The Debt With Tears
Ch. 2: She is the only child of the official Lin Ruhai, and when her mother dies she grieves herself sick. → Lin Daiyu Enters
Ch. 3: She tells her new family that a monk once said she would only be well if she never heard weeping and never met any relatives but her parents. → Lin Daiyu Leaves Home · Lin Daiyu Meets the Family
Ch. 3: After Baoyu throws his jade, she cries that she has already caused a scene. → Baoyu Throws Away His Jade
Ch. 5: Her easygoing cousin Xue Baochai wins over the servants, the proud and aloof Daiyu resents it, and she and Baoyu have their first quarrel. → The Rivalry Begins
Ch. 7–8: She notices that her palace flowers came only after everyone else had picked, and at Aunt Xue’s she teases Baoyu, then fixes his hat. → Jia Baoyu Admires The Flowers · What in the World Is Lin Daiyu Talking About?
Ch. 12–14: She goes home to see her gravely ill father, and word comes back that he has died. → Lin Daiyu’s Father Dies
Ch. 16: Back in the capital, she refuses a bracelet that a prince gave Baoyu, asking, “Why would I want something that a stinking man has handled?” → Lin Daiyu Returns
Ch. 17–18: Thinking Baoyu gave away her pouch, she cuts up a sachet she was sewing for him, and during his sister’s imperial visit she secretly writes one of his poems. → Lin Daiyu’s Temper · Green Jade and Green Wax
Ch. 19: Baoyu invents a story about a mouse who turns into “fragrant jade,” and she pins him down and pinches him. → Jia Baoyu Visits Lin Daiyu · The Mouse Story
Ch. 20: Shi Xiangyun arrives, Daiyu catches Baoyu coming from Baochai’s rooms, and the two of them have their first great quarrel. → The Big Fight

Relationships

Jia Baoyu, cousin: Her constant companion, and the stone of Chapter 1.
Grandmother Jia, maternal grandmother: Dotes on her as much as on Baoyu.
Lin Ruhai, father: Sends her to the capital; dies in Ch. 14.
Jia Min, mother: Grandmother Jia’s favorite daughter; dies in Ch. 2.
Xue Baochai, no blood relation: The popular newcomer who unsettles her.
Wang Xifeng, cousin by marriage: Greets her with tears and flattery.
Xueyan and Zijuan, maids: Xueyan came with her from home.

What readers argue about

Why does she play down her learning? She tells Grandmother Jia that she has read the Four Books, the core Confucian classics. Then she tells Baoyu that she knows only a few characters. Is that tact, or self-protection? → Daiyu’s First Meal

Prickly, or just honest? The family keeps treating her as an outsider. Is her sharp tongue a flaw, or simply the truth? → Lin Daiyu’s Temper · Wang Xifeng and Lin Daiyu

Fate or choice? Chapter 1 turns her tears into a debt. But Daniel notes that no heavenly office arranged the bond: the stone and the plant found each other on their own. → Lin Daiyu’s Emotions