林黛玉

Lin Daiyu
Lin Daiyu (林黛玉) is one of the principal characters of Cao Xueqin's classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. She is described as having been sickly and prone to illness since childhood; indeed, when she is first introduced, a couplet describes her "with a heart like Bi Gan's, yet even more intelligent; and with an illness like Xi Zi, yet even more beautiful". She is a well-educated and intelligent young woman who is portrayed in a highly sympathetic light. The romance between Daiyu and Jia Baoyu forms one of the main threads of the book and in many readers' eyes, Lin Daiyu is the book's leading lady.
Daiyu is an emotional girl, prone to mood swings. Her character complements that of her cousin, Xue Baochai. Indeed, it has been suggested that the two women are complements of one another - each has exactly the attributes of Cao Xueqin's ideal woman which the other lacks. Baoyu's maid Skybright (Qingwen, 晴雯) is often considered to be Daiyu's "double," in that they have similar temperaments and a similar "ethereal" beauty.
Daiyu's emotional tirades make sense in the context of the supernatural. It is strongly suggested that Daiyu is a reincarnated vermillion pearl (the "Crimson Pearl Flower" in the Hawkes translation) that through good care by a spirit in the heavens (the reincarnation of which is strongly suggested to be Baoyu) was imbued with life. In exchange for this gift, the Vermillion Pearl vowed to be reincarnated as a human, and pay back her caregiver in the form of as many tears as a girl may weep in a lifetime.