Six Records of a Floating Life (Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
Six Records of a Floating Life (1809) is an extraordinary blend of autobiography, love story and social document written by a man who was educated as a scholar but earned his living as a civil servant and art dealer. In this intimate memoir, Shen Fu recounts the domestic and romantic joys of his marriage to Yün, the beautiful and artistic girl he fell in love with as a child. He also describes other incidents of his life, including how his beloved wife obtained a courtesan for him and reflects on his travels through China. Shen Fu's exquisite memoir shows six parallel 'layers' of one man's life, loves and career, with revealing glimpses into Chinese society of the Ch'ing Dynasty.
About the Author
Leonard Pratt is the bureau chief for NBC News in Hong Kong.
Chiang Su-Hui was born and educated in Taiwan. She has a degree in Chinese law and has worked as an educator, writer and broadcaster.
Leonard Pratt is the bureau chief for NBC News in Hong Kong.
Chiang Su-Hui was born and educated in Taiwan. She has a degree in Chinese law and has worked as an educator, writer and broadcaster.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Of the "Six Records of a Floating Life", only four survive. These, entitled "The Joys of the Marriage Chamber", "The Pleasures of Leisure", "The Sorrows of Misfortune" and "The Delights of Roaming Afar", treat the author's life thematically - each chapter covers the same life, but from a different viewpoint, so that significant events are seen from several different angles. Shen Fu's love for his wife Chen Yün is a memorable part of the book, but their relationship is a complex one: she becomes obsessed with a young concubine Han-yüan, whom she engages as a concubine apparently for her husband's behalf but, Shen Fu hints, also so that the two women can be together. Chen Yün's death from a mysterious illness hangs over the four records, creating a sense of melancholy. But there is far more than just the story of Shen Fu and Chen Yün's love and marriage to delight the reader - Shen Fu's disgressions on flower arranging and interior decoration on a (sometimes very) limited budget in "The Pleasures of Leisure" were nothing short of life-enhancing! Likewise, the descriptions of his journeying with friends to spend the day in monastery gardens, only to have the day spoiled by fellow visitors' noisy insensitivity are a joy to read.
Shen Fu's life was not one of noticeable worldly success and he is modest and self-effacing in the telling of it, but his technique of writing his life story from different thematic viewpoints allows us to see a delicately nuanced humanity which makes rivetting reading.
Shen Fu's life was not one of noticeable worldly success and he is modest and self-effacing in the telling of it, but his technique of writing his life story from different thematic viewpoints allows us to see a delicately nuanced humanity which makes rivetting reading.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are interested either in different types of autobiography, in travel writing on old China, or on male/female relationships within different cultures, this may be of interest. It is the memoir, in the form of 4 chapters each dominated by a certain theme, of a not v. successful secretary in late 18th/early 19th century China. It is concise, very accessible, well translated, with unobtrusive footnotes, and easy to dip into a chapter at a time. Specially recommended if, like me, you have reached a certain age and wish to look back over especially intense moments of delight, of experiencing beauty, or of sorrow. I encountered this by chance, and loved it. The Buddhist sense of the transience of all human things gives a great poignancy to the husband/wife relationship, and to the beauty of the landscape the author describes.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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10 reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
A passionate and romantic story
6 Aug 2002
Format:Paperback
"Six Records" (also known as "Six Chapters of a Floating Life"), c. 1805, is an extraordinarily frank autobiography that is totally unprecedented and unparalleled in the history of Chinese literature. It describes the life of the author Shen Fu and his beloved wife, Ch'en Yun (1763-1803), in extremely revealing detail. The intimacy and joy shared by the couple are as unusual by normal standards of Chinese married life as is the author's daringness in revealing them to others. Their close, playful relationship stands in defiant opposition to the staid decorum of married life expected by Confucian ideology.
A thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring read. Ch'en Yun is a woman ahead of her time who admirably balances her love of learning and passion for life with her duties and obligations as a traditional Chinese wife.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
The wonder of nothing special
8 Nov 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There are so many contradictions within this quirky memoir that it could only possibly be true.
This is a memoir of life right around the start of the 19th century. It recounts the adult life of Shen Fu, a man who appears to have been ordinary in the extreme. Although educated, he did not pass the literary tests of the civil service. At best, his career could have been a secretary under one of the successful examinees, but his times weren't always the best. His positions never lasted, and his business attempts failed. Often, he sold his possessions and his wife's down to the clothes on their backs (or less). He fell out with his family, in a time when filial duty was enforced by law, and became outcast in almost every sense.
But his life never wholly failed, either. Perhaps it was the glow of nostalgia, but his twenty-three years of marriage were always a joy to him, even when his wife's health failed, and even when she may have been the source of some of his problems. They had their times of poverty, but never to the point of starvation. He was honorable enough to quit a corrupt position when it offended his honor too deeply. He was devoted enough to heal the familial rifts. His joys and Yun's were simple - travel, each other, the beauty of the full moon, and maybe a little too much wine shared with happy company. Shen Fu and his devoted Yun never demanded much from their lives, and usually got enough to enjoy.
The text wanders. The first three chapters chart the ups and downs of the marriage to his beloved wife. She died early, from some frightening disease. Still, she and he accepted it stoically, or mostly did. The fourth chapter collects a few decades of moments together, the sights and sounds of travel. With his wife and after her, Shun Fu visited temples, sacred caves, and pleasure districts, reported in some drifting collage of personal history. Despite the "six" promised in the title, we have only four. It's probably better that way, according to the appendices.
I really think I would have liked Shun Fu. He was honest enough, loving enough, and devoted enough to his children. Even when his own situation deteriorated badly, he fostered his son as best he could and sheltered his daughter with people who could marry her well. He never wholly succeeded or failed, but muddled through the chances that appeared to him. He was no grand hero, nor villain, nor idle dreamer, nor driven workaholic. He was just a guy, living some guy's life pretty well. Maybe he dressed up his memories just a bit, but don't we all?
//wiredweird
This is a memoir of life right around the start of the 19th century. It recounts the adult life of Shen Fu, a man who appears to have been ordinary in the extreme. Although educated, he did not pass the literary tests of the civil service. At best, his career could have been a secretary under one of the successful examinees, but his times weren't always the best. His positions never lasted, and his business attempts failed. Often, he sold his possessions and his wife's down to the clothes on their backs (or less). He fell out with his family, in a time when filial duty was enforced by law, and became outcast in almost every sense.
But his life never wholly failed, either. Perhaps it was the glow of nostalgia, but his twenty-three years of marriage were always a joy to him, even when his wife's health failed, and even when she may have been the source of some of his problems. They had their times of poverty, but never to the point of starvation. He was honorable enough to quit a corrupt position when it offended his honor too deeply. He was devoted enough to heal the familial rifts. His joys and Yun's were simple - travel, each other, the beauty of the full moon, and maybe a little too much wine shared with happy company. Shen Fu and his devoted Yun never demanded much from their lives, and usually got enough to enjoy.
The text wanders. The first three chapters chart the ups and downs of the marriage to his beloved wife. She died early, from some frightening disease. Still, she and he accepted it stoically, or mostly did. The fourth chapter collects a few decades of moments together, the sights and sounds of travel. With his wife and after her, Shun Fu visited temples, sacred caves, and pleasure districts, reported in some drifting collage of personal history. Despite the "six" promised in the title, we have only four. It's probably better that way, according to the appendices.
I really think I would have liked Shun Fu. He was honest enough, loving enough, and devoted enough to his children. Even when his own situation deteriorated badly, he fostered his son as best he could and sheltered his daughter with people who could marry her well. He never wholly succeeded or failed, but muddled through the chances that appeared to him. He was no grand hero, nor villain, nor idle dreamer, nor driven workaholic. He was just a guy, living some guy's life pretty well. Maybe he dressed up his memories just a bit, but don't we all?
//wiredweird
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
A charming and touching autobiography of a poor scholar
7 Dec 1997
Format:Paperback
This is a most charming and touching story of a poor Chinese scholar-painter struggling to make a decent living under poverty and mounting debts. In his autobiography, Shen Fu shares with us his experiences, his love for a talented wife and other simple things in life, his family and friends, and travels throughout Manchu China. Despite mounting poverty, he has great passion for living and these records of his experiences and impressions are as relevant to us as it were to him 200 years ago. A highly recommended book and a definite "must-read" over the weekend.
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