Fúshēng Liù Jì 浮生六記
Six Records of a Floating Life by 沈復 (撰)
About the work
Fúshēng Liù Jì 浮生六記 (Six Records of a Floating Life) is a personal memoir in 4 surviving juǎn (chapters), written by Shěn Fù 沈復 (courtesy name Sānbái 三白; 1763–after 1809) of Sūzhōu 蘇州. It is among the most celebrated examples of Qīng personal prose, distinguished by its unusually intimate and affectionate account of the author’s marriage to Chén Yún 陳芸 (1763–1803), his aesthetic sensibilities, and his wanderings. This is one of two Kanripo editions of the same text (see also KR4k0118); the two files are byte-for-byte identical, differing only in their catalog reference tags.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The memoir opens with the author’s account of his birth in the winter of Qiánlóng guǐwèi 乾隆癸未 (1763), “in a time of great peace, in a family of officials, beside the Cānglàng Pavilion 滄浪亭 in Sūzhōu.” It is organized into four surviving juǎn:
- Guīfáng Jì Lè 閨房記樂 (Joys of the Boudoir): the domestic intimacy and intellectual companionship of the author’s marriage to Chén Yún 陳芸, whom he had loved since childhood.
- Xiánqíng Jì Qù 閑情記趣 (Pleasures of Leisure): aesthetic pursuits — flower arranging, garden design, lantern parties.
- Kǎnkě Jì Chóu 坎坷記愁 (Sorrows of Hardship): the couple’s poverty, the death of Yún after prolonged illness (1803), and family estrangement.
- Làng Yóu Jì Kuài 浪遊記快 (Joys of Roaming): travel sketches of the author’s time in the Líng’nán 嶺南 region (modern Guangdong) and elsewhere.
Two further juǎn (5: Zhōngyōng Jì Dào 中庸記道, and 6: Yǎng Shēng Jì Dào 養生記道), which would complete the titular “six records,” are absent from all known witnesses. Their loss is unresolved: some scholars suspect the sixth record was never written; others note that the first printed edition (1877, by Yáng Yǐnquán 楊引傳, published in the Dúhuā Chéng Xúan 獨花城軒 imprint) already lacked them. The memoir’s authenticity was briefly questioned in the twentieth century but is now generally accepted.
Shěn Fù was a low-ranking government secretary (mùyǒu 幕友) who spent his life in moderate poverty. The CBDB entry (id 65742) records his birth year as 1763 (Qiánlóng 28th year, consistent with the text’s own statement), with no death year established; the latest dateable event in the memoir points to ca. 1809. Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, p. 11908) notes: “An unusually frank description of a couple united in love and friendship.”
Translations and research
- Leonard Pratt and Suhui Chiang, tr. Six Records of a Floating Life. Penguin, 1983.
- Graham Sanders, tr. Six Records of a Life Adrift. Hackett, 2012.
- Lin Yutang, tr. Chapters from a Floating Life. Oxford University Press, 1960.
- Victor Mair, “What is a Chinese ‘Dialect/Topolect’?” — discusses Shěn Fù in the context of bǐjì prose.
- Shirley Wong (Huáng Shūlíng 黃淑玲). 2003. “Shěn Fù’s Fúshēng Liùjì: A Study of the Text and Its Author.” (Various academic discussions in Chinese literary journals.)
Other points of interest
The third chapter’s account of Chén Yún’s death from illness, and the couple’s unconventional friendship-based marriage, made this text a touchstone for May Fourth-era writers celebrating romantic love. Hú Shì 胡適 praised it as the first Chinese autobiography in the modern sense.