Chinese “Helen of Troy”: the development of Qin Ke-qing’s tendency and fate in The Story of The Stone

Abstracts: This study implements a praxis of relational comparison to reconfigure our understanding of 18th-century Sinitic vernacular fiction. Rather than evaluating Cao Xueqin’s masterwork through the standard linear progression of the Eurocentric novel, this paper establishes a cross-cultural triangulation between Homeric epic fate and late imperial allegorical structures. Specifically, I argue that Qin Keqing operates as a macro-cosmic somatic catalyst whose physical desire and early death drive the structural decline of the Jia clan. Drawing on Zhuangzi’s non-dualist philosophy of wuhua (物化 - the transformation of things), the study demonstrates that Keqing’s hyper-aestheticized bedroom functions as an active ontological threshold—resembling the performative "Ghost Gateway" (Guimendao) found in early Chinese drama. This spatial configuration creates a system of concentric spectatorship that actively destabilizes the objective gaze of the reader, transforming the act of reading into an ongoing, tactile performance of psychological transformation.