A Brief Review: Six Records of a Floating Life
A Brief Review: Six Records of a Floating Life
Since the early nineteen century, in the field of Chinese literature, there has been an autobiographical work widely acclaimed both by the western scholars and Chinese critics as an excellent representation of the pattern of folk life in the Qing Dynasty. Written by Shen Fu, a romantic poet, and clerk, Six Records of a Floating Life was instantly well-received and has been regarded as epic since its 1887 release due to its vague blend of genres, as well as the diversified and sophisticated incorporation of themes. While a substantial number of readers are giving positive evaluations on the book’s subtle touch on issues like family responsibilities and social morality, move enthusiasms are placed on the writer’s unconditional devotion to his wife, Chen Yun, along with his insightful and even libertine outlook on the destiny of human beings. Setting in Suzhou Province, Shen’s birthplace, with a complex combination of subjects ranging from gardening experience, finance, literature and poetry composition, prostitution (Hackett Classics 2011), to Shen’s rather revealing and enviable emotional life, the book remains intriguingly beautiful, poetic and mystical. However, different from the writer’s unrestricted writing style formed by rare frankness and intelligent humor, the society he was exposed to back in the eighteenth century was marked by severe constraints and massive adherences to traditional ethical values. Without any question, this old-fashioned and flawed cultural and political atmosphere projected inexorably powerful impacts on the writer’s fate, which could be broadly witnessed throughout the chapters as cruel and unfortunate. Besides, to a substantial extent, the dysfunctional environment, vividly indicated in the content, provided an excellent opportunity for the couple, who were almost childhood sweethearts, to display their rebellious spirits and their unwillingness of submitting to the dominating social norms. By giving a brief investigation on the conflicting social forces and weaknesses of Shen’s personality, this essay claims Shen’s setbacks and depressions as outcomes functioned by multiple factors. Besides, it maintains that Shen’s marriage is an unsuccessful but pioneering attempt of breaking old law and stereotypes.
What Shen Fu experienced and encountered is one unexceptional embodiment of the result of social circumstances, where the emerging capitalism and Chinese feudal mode fiercely ran into each other and caused complex mentalities of the ordinary people. From Shen’s realistic and fantastic narrations and detailed restoration of various activities and incidents, readers are significantly evoked and invited to probe into the external conditions controlled by walls of feudalism as well as the public’s backward outlook systems. There is no doubt that, throughout the human history, regardless of the region, a universal phenomenon exists when the contradiction is made between many individuals’ inherently held ideals and their social practices. This high sense of clashes, when shaped by overwhelmingly intense exploitations and tight social supervisions, could upgrade into irreversible consequences, which probably lead to occurrences of tragedies on people. For the writer, on one hand, floods of advanced thoughts, primarily bringing sweeping changes to many literary intellectuals, encouraged his pursuits for self-expressions and spiritual liberty. His increasingly resentful and contemptuous attitude towards his employment, obsession with immediate pleasures, for example, his binge drinking repeatedly mentioned under his pen, as well as the unconventional opinion given on prostitutes, could all be seen as indications of standing at the forefront of his time.
Another history-breaking aspect could be vividly identified in his marital relation, which serves as one of the largest highlights contributing to the endurance of the book. As one article titled “What Can We Learn from Ancient Chinese Views of Marriage?” noticed, according to the traditional conception of marriage, functions of husbands and wives should remain complementary like the correlation of yin and yang. However, with the shift of time, the balance was broken when more thinkers “privileged yang over yin (Erin Cline 2014)”. In the context of the Qing Dynasty and Shen’s age, this developing trend remained visibly active and ran deep into almost all family units. While it is true that there exist lasting and keen affections between Chen Yun and her husband, the fact of their arranged marriage, the constantly disturbing and many-sided interventions of their married life from Shen’s parents, as well as their dissatisfaction showed in the daughter-in-law’s behaviors, are examples of the inequality between males and females. Further details revealed in the attempts of marrying a concubine, and the extremely passive situation when the couple is expelled because of his parents’ anger, are positive proofs of Shen’s compromises facing the marriage institution.
The deficit in Shen’s disposition, which is apparently paradoxical, offers as another equally key factor that shapes his adversity. Despite that well-gifted man spends most of his time engaging in a free lifestyle and breaking away from the constraints laid by old values, he fails to realize complete detachment. Rather, hesitation and infirm attitude are suggested possessed by him when he takes improper coping method over his parents’ hostility on Chen Yun. Also, his mild and weak character are underscored in a series of disasters happens on him since Yun’s death of her illness: the silence and inability to act in front of severe poverty and significant debts. In understanding this, Shen exhibits an exceedingly confessional gesture. Not even one corner in the pages does the writer portrays or expresses himself as any level of success, whether in professional or domestic life. In other words, it is his indecisiveness and inactions that considerably worsens the already-scarred life conditions, which might have been improved if there are a higher rationality and optimism presented.
The romance between Shen Fu and his wife, who at the same time acts as a like-minded friend and loyal companion, is subversive regarding marital customs and manners. Widely praised by their courageous conducts, the couple made breakthrough progress in many aspects when women were still deemed as parts of the property of their opposite gender. As it is depicted, this deep-rooted conception, characterized by polygamy, is substantially challenged by nearly equal emotional treatments given by the couple towards each other. The fascinatingly unveiled story of Chen Yun’s hiding rice porridge for her husband, which counted at that time as inappropriate and embarrassing, is a manifestation of her devotion and bravery in taking her initiative. Another significant violation of the rules comes from Yun’s dressing in man’s clothes when she decides to participate in events with her husband. While the inherited social mood regulated married women handle the household business inside, their activities, as one journal commented, are “both deeply idiosyncratic and unrepresentative of the times (Carlos Ottery 2015)”. What adds heating discussions and causes puzzles is their obedience in the matter of marrying a concubine, whom, Chen Yun has “ostensibly engaged on her husband’s behalf (Celeste Heiter 2001). Whether it is out of powerlessness or frustration, their acceptance of including another woman is the fact that their resistance is immature and not complete.
Composed of altogether four chapters, with the fifth and sixth being globally suspected as missing, the book contains Wedded Bliss, The little Pleasures of Life, In Sorrow, and The Joys of Travel. Although, in some readers’ eyes, Six Records of a Floating Life is a chronological record revolving around the bumpy and strange life of the writer, portraits on certain events, especially about his collisions with his family and the business circle, are overlapped with retellings and speculations from multiple angles. Widely received as a loser, Shen Fu’s enigmatic and complicated life is a representation of social strengths constructed by feudal ethics and his personal traits. He and his wife’s united efforts of sustaining a relation with respects and equality, although not thorough, are highly admirable and worthy of reverence from all us.
Works Cited
Hackett Classics: Six Records of a Life Adrift by Shen Fu. 2011.
Erin Cline. “What Can We Learn from Ancient Chinese Views of Marriage?” 13 Nov. 2014.
Carlos Ottery. “Floating Life of a Qing Dynasty Oddball.” 11 Sep. 2015.
Celeste Heiter. “Book Review: Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu.” 15 Nov 2001.