The Presence of Absence: Baoqin, Her Ontology, and the Narratology of Dream of the Red Chamber

Focusing on a traditionally understudied character (Xue Baoqin 薛寶琴) and through a contextually informed reading, this article explores a meaningful fusion of metatextuality as a critical relationship and the theatricality of everyday scenarios jointly embedded in the aesthetics and narratology of Honglou meng 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber). Unlike most meta-textual devices staged within the novel aligning with earlier traditions, the figure of Baoqin uniquely embodies a duality of being “absent” and “present” at once—namely, she is ontologically detached from the novel’s inherently prophetic, representational system and, simultaneously, present as an active agent with whom the story proceeds without other-worldly intervention. With these, the study further illustrates how the vision of Baoqin and that of an “informed reader” merge into one, toward an inexhaustible realm of self-reflexive engagement. Collectively, the figure of Baoqin and other supportive evidence invite critical reflection on the intra-textually constructed “Total Vision” (daguan 大觀), an image conflated with the myth of all-in-one completeness that, at different levels, is prevailing in the reading of Honglou meng and even classical Chinese culture.