Quick Answer: Who Is Qin Keqing?
Qin Keqing (秦可卿, Qín Kěqīng) is Jia Rong’s wife in the Ning household (宁国府, Níngguó Fǔ) in Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦, Hónglóu Mèng). Her rooms frame a dream of Jia Baoyu (贾宝玉, Jiǎ Bǎoyù).[1]
- Baoyu falls asleep in Qin’s room in Chapter 5.[1]
- A physician examines her in Chapter 10.[2]
- Wang Xifeng (王熙凤, Wáng Xīfèng) dreams of Qin shortly before learning of her death.[3]
The two dreams belong to different people and serve different purposes.
One dream opens onto songs and a register of women’s fates. The other offers advice about land, education and the future of an aristocratic family. Qin Keqing links both dreams to the daily workings of the Ning household.
Baoyu’s Dream in Chapter 5
Qin takes Jia Baoyu to her room to rest. He dreams of the Land of Illusion and encounters a figure named Keqing. When he calls out that name on waking, Qin wonders how he knows it. The scene deliberately lets a name cross the boundary between dream and waking life.[1]
Illness and the Register’s Image
In Chapter 10, the household brings in a physician to examine Qin. By Chapter 13 she is dead.[2][3] Readers who return to the Chapter 5 register of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling encounter a troubling picture conventionally associated with Qin. The picture and the later sequence of illness and death give readers different clues. The chapter’s account leaves room for debate about how the clues fit together.[1][5]
What Qin Tells Wang Xifeng
In Chapter 13, Qin appears to Wang Xifeng and warns that the family’s prosperity cannot last forever. She advises it to provide for ancestral rites and the family school while it can still afford to do so. Xifeng wakes to news of Qin’s death and is asked to manage the funeral. The dream concerns the household’s future, while the preparations display its present rank.[3]
The Funeral in a Qing Illustrated Album
Chapter 14 moves the funeral into public view. The procession takes Baoyu past the Prince of Beijing, who has come to pay his respects.[4] In a Qing album by Sun Wen and Sun Yunmo held by Lüshun Museum, the catalogue identifies separate pictures for Qin’s dream visit and the funeral. The division gives readers a way to follow the move from a private conversation to a public ceremony.[6][7]
FAQs About Qin Keqing
Who is Qin Keqing married to?
She is married to Jia Rong of the Ning household.[3]
Which dream contains the warning about the family?
Qin gives the warning to Wang Xifeng in Chapter 13.[3]
Where does Qin appear in the Twelve Beauties?
She is associated with the final picture and verse in the main register revealed in Chapter 5.[1][5]
Sumber
[1] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 5
[2] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 10
[3] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 13
[4] Dream of the Red Chamber. Chapter 14
[5] University of California, Riverside. Poetry as Dreaming, Dreaming as Poetry
[6] Lüshun Museum. Exhibition of the illustrated Dream of the Red Chamber
[7] Shanghai Classics Publishing House, catalogue listing. Illustrated Dream of the Red Chamber table of contents