From: Fu Qingsheng's Excerpt from Six Chapters of a Floating Life: The world is boundless and time is limited, so why hurry? Life is dull, short and long, but it is hard to gain and lose. Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiographical collection of essays written by Shen Fu, a native of Changzhou in the 13th year of Yu Jiaqing (1808). ?
"Six Chapters of a Floating Life" takes the life of the author and his wife as the main line and describes what they saw and heard in the wandering world. It is an ordinary and interesting home life. The work describes that the author and his wife, Chen Yun, are congenial and want to live a life of food, clothing, housing and art. Due to the oppression of feudal ethics and the suffering of poor life, their ideals are finally shattered.
The text of the book is fresh and true, with no traces of carving and decoration, and the plot is so affectionate that the husband and wife will die together.
brief Introduction of the content
Six Chapters of a Floating Life has six original volumes, but the first four are still in existence. The first volume, the story of the boudoir, describes the author and his wife Chen Yun, who lives in Canglang Pavilion in seclusion. Whenever the flowers bloom on the moon, the husband and wife are happy, expressing the author's deep memory of his dead wife.
The second volume, Idle Feelings, tells the story of the author wandering around in poverty, enjoying flowers, insects and fish, arranging various pleasing utensils, and enjoying a real taste everywhere with his love for beauty, thus expounding the author's different secular aesthetics. The third volume, Memories of Ups and Downs, describes that the author and his wife are romantic by nature and are not allowed in feudal families. They were exiled twice, wandering around and down and out.
Chen Yun, his beloved wife in exile, died of illness. Unfortunately, his father died one after another. When the author came back from grief, his brother lost harmony and his family changed greatly.
Life is rough, be prepared for hardship. The fourth volume, The Joy of Wandering around the World, describes the author's travels, travels around the scenic spots and records the beautiful scenery around. The book reflects the world feelings at that time, such as the persecution of women by feudal ethics and the bleak experience of intellectuals, the latter two have been lost.