Leave only the withered lotus leaves to listen to the sound of the rain. Describes a lonely and sad state of mind.
It appears in the 40th chapter of "A Dream of Red Mansions". There is a description of everyone from the Jia family visiting the lake. When Baoyu said that he wanted to pull out the broken lotus leaves, Lin Daiyu said: "I don't like Li Yishan's poems the most. I only like his line 'Leave the remaining lotus leaves to listen to the sound of rain', but you don't keep the remaining lotus leaves." Lin Daiyu quoted When Li Shangyin wrote this poem, he changed "Withered Lotus" to "Remnant Lotus"
Extended information:
The original sentence is: "Leave the withered lotus to listen to the sound of rain." ", from "Su Luo's Pavilion Reminds Cui Yong and Cui Gun" by Li Shangyin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.
The withered lotus in Li Shangyin's works is in line with the artistic conception of late autumn and his own feeling of loss. Cao Xueqin's residual lotus reflects The fate of the Jia family fell in the middle. The lotus leaves in the pond may have been thriving, but they were destroyed by external forces, just like the bad luck that the Jia family suffered.