Gu Luo (“Goo Lu-o”), 1763–after 1837
Lin Daiyu Burying Fallen Blossoms
Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper; 34.13 x 12 in.
Collection of Roy and Marilyn Papp, courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum

Description
Gu Luo’s painting of a scene from the novel Dream of the Red Chamber refers to the transience of life and the emotion of sorrow. The heroine buries blossoms, mourning their fleeting qualities: “A girl in her chamber mourns the passing of spring… / Hoe in hand she steps through her portal, / Loath to tread on the blossoms as she comes and goes.” The patron of this painting wrote a companion verse lamenting his own lost love: “Now you have gone, / Leaving none but a broken heart!”

Community Response by Xu Xiaolu
“As a Chinese person I always liked the traditional paintings of Chinese beauty. They are all beautiful pictures. But behind almost every beauty there is a sad story. In old China, women had no say in society or family. They could not control their own fate. They longed for their freedom, but their story always ended in tragedy.”

Community Response by Qingjun Li
“I got to know of Lin Daiyu when I was a teenager. Daiyu is the heroine from one of the Four Classics in Chinese literature. She is such a popular figure among our conversational topics, especially when the TV series of Dream of the Red Chamber was played every night in the late 1980s. So seeing this painting made me remember my time of sitting in front of the TV anxiously every night and watching Daiyu. As a self-pitying, sensitive woman, she is the sacrifice of patriarchal society. I like this painting, and especially it reminds me of the Chinese great literature.”