The conversion of Vanitas (Kongkong daoren) in chapter one of Honglou meng, and his subsequent adoption of a new name, Brother Amor (Qing Seng, foreshadows the awakening of Bao-yu, Zhen Shiyin, and Liu Xiang-lian and raises important questions concerning the “secret message” in The story of the stone. A survey of tenable religio-philosophical interpretations of the Kongkong daoren episodes shows that the negative theology employed by Chan Buddhism provides the best single hermeneutic through which to discern this concealed message.