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44 pages 1 hour read

Shen Fu

Six Records of a Floating Life

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1809

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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4 Summary: “The Delights of Roaming Afar”

Shen Fu spent much of his life travelling around China and living temporarily in a great number of cities and provinces across the country. His major excursions were always in the company of others and were usually undertaken in the course of his job as a “yamen” private secretary. Consequently, he had only ever been able admire remote natural areas from afar, never venturing too deep into the wilderness, which is one of his major regrets in life. This part of his text is an account of the travels he took and the places of note that he has visited over the course of his life.

As a youth, he accompanied his father on work assignments under different county magistrates. When Shen Fu was 15, they went to Shanyin, where Shen Fu studied under a respected teacher and was able to take trips into nature on his days off. One day, he had a servant set of firecrackers in a pavilion at the base of the Ho mountain. The following year, he accompanied his teacher to Hangzhou, visiting famous graves and admiring stunning scenery of mountains and lakes. After sitting one of the official examinations there, he and a fellow student went drinking together and exploring local caves. He also joined his teacher’s pilgrimage to care for his family graves in the mountainous countryside. While travelling, they met a monk who showed them a pavilion holding a purportedly 10-thousand-year-old urn covered in thick moss placed under a freshwater spring so that it was constantly full.

When Shen Fu’s father fell seriously ill with malaria and typhoid in 1781, he believed himself on his deathbed and entrusted Shen Fu to his sworn brother to learn the trade of the private “yamen” secretary. Although Shen Fu’s father eventually recovered, Shen Yuan was nonetheless obliged to pursue a career in government offices. He accompanied his mentor to Fengxian, made a close friend named Hung Kan who would go on to die young, and attended the “Double Nine” festival in Suzhou. Together he and Hung Kan climbed the Han mountain to admire the view and then got drunk together in the famous gardens near the village of Shangsha. Returning home late, Chen Yun introduced him to an actress performing in his father’s festival celebrations. She suggested that Shen Fu might like to take the actress as a concubine, but he wasn’t interested in her.

In 1783, Shen Fu’s work took him to Weiyang, where he was able to visit the celebrated Pingshan Hall and its gardens, which were some of the best he had ever seen. His time there coincided with preparations for the Emperor’s grand tour of the south, meaning that he was able to experience the indescribably spectacular festivities and ceremonies there. Accompanying his father to a position in Wujiang the following year, he had his second opportunity to be in the presence of the Emperor. He was able to return to his family home for a short visit by taking a fast official boat across Lake Tai late one evening, which felt like flying. Next they moved to work in Haining, making another close friend, visiting the famous local gardens, and taking in magnificent views of the ocean from a coastal mountaintop. He and his family watched the tide come in from a seaside pagoda as part of that year’s Mid Autumn Festival celebrations.

At age 25, he was offered his first independent job as a yamen in Huizhou. In order to attend a flower festival in a remote rural village without having to walk there, Shen Fu improvised a sedan chair out of an ordinary seat and bamboo poles, and he paid some locals to carry him. He left this position after two years due to his irreconcilable moral scruples at the low behavior he witnessed in that office. He attempted to earn a living by becoming a merchant, partnering with his uncle and investing in his business. However their maritime shipping routes were blocked indefinitely by rebel activity in the South, and the business went bust. Shen Fu was obliged to spend the following four years working for the government, during which time he was unable to travel.

He spent the following 18 months unemployed and living in The Villa of Serenity before agreeing to join his younger cousin on a merchant venture to Guangdong. Chen Yun encouraged the venture, helping to facilitate and procure promising goods, while Shen Fu secured borrowed funds and permission from his father. He spent his 30th birthday on the long but pleasant journey to Guangdong, which was mostly undertaken by boat on the Yangtze river. Shen Fu and his cousin sold their goods within 10 days of their arrival but would ultimately linger in the city for an additional four months. During this time, Shen Fu spent a small fortune of over 100 gold pieces on a tender but costly relationship with the young “sing-song girl,” i.e., sex worker Xi’er.

Shen Fu was initially introduced by friends to the “flower boats” from whence the brothels operated, scorning the first few establishments due to the girls’ unfamiliar dialects and clothing, before finding satisfaction in Xi’er’s establishment. He learns early on of the miserable circumstances and quality of life of the girls forced into sexual enslavement as indentured servants owned by the brothel madame. He treats Xi’er kindly and becomes a welcome and familiar figure to all of the girls on the boat, enjoying their company but only sleeping with Xi’er. He considers this the happiest time of his life but left once the madame started to pressure him to buy Xi’er and take her home as a concubine, as his cousin had done with another woman. The following year, Shen Fu’s cousin returned to Guangdong, but Shen Fu’s father did not allow him to go. When Xi’er realized that she had been abandoned fully and that Shen Fu would not return, she tried several times to die by suicide.

The following two years, Shen Fu worked as a yamen in Chinpu, not travelling significantly. Chen Yun then suffered a relapse of her illness following the loss of Han Yuan, and Shen Fu opened a small shop in their house selling paintings and books to support them. His friends invited him on a trip through the mountains to celebrate that year’s Mid Autumn festival, stopping to eat and drink in numerous temples along the way. They drunkenly climbed a high mountain to watch the moon as one of Shen Fu’s friends played a mournful tune on the lute, and Shen Fu felt as though they were immortals. He felt melancholy passing the Han mountain that he and the now dead Hung Kan climbed together, but he was delighted when they were able to find a derelict and near-abandoned temple way out in the secluded wilderness. On his way back to Chen Yun, he took a detour to the Yun mountain, accepting a local as a guide and travel companion, and climbing precariously to reach an isolated cave on the cliff face.

After the death of Chen Yun and then his father, Shen Fu was invited to stay with his friend Yi Shan. Shen Fu accompanied his friend to Tunghai, where Yi Shan owned land farmed by local peasants. They stayed for 10 months of relaxation and uninhibited enjoyment in the seaside area, enjoying the company of other local landlords. Shen Fu interjects into his travelogue with a brief ranking of the favorite sites, attractions, and areas of natural beauty in his native Suzhou with which he is intimately familiar, explaining his opinions and preferences. He then continues to tell how in 1805 he was invited to accompany Yi Shan’s family on a trip to caretake ancestral graves and make sacrifices at the family temple on Pu mountain. Shen Fu produced a set of paintings inspired by the trip that he gifted to Yi Shan’s family. Later that year, Shen Fu took another job as yamen, accompanying the new county magistrate to Chongqing up the Yangtze river.

At Qingzhou, they learned that the magistrate had been promoted and reassigned to Dunhuang, so while he traveled on to his new assignment, Shen Fu stayed with his family and other retinue in the Qingzhou. After several months, they joined up with the rest of the magistrates’ family and traveled on by boat to join him in Dunhuang. There, Shen Fu was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery surrounding the city and enjoyed living in a beautiful home in the official gardens, which was named The Unmoored Boat for him. When the magistrate moved on to yet another new assignment, Shen Fu and the rest of his staff used their idle time going on trips to the Hua mountains, admiring the trees and temples there. Shen Fu continued on as part of the magistrates retinue, following him to Shandong, Laiyang, and on to the Hanlin Academy in Chang’an.

Part 4 Analysis

This final extant part of Six Records of a Floating Life is written similarly to a travelogue, recording the trips that Shen Fu took for work and leisure throughout his life. He details some of the significant attractions he visits and tells of his notable experiences. Much of this part is very repetitive, particularly to an audience unfamiliar with Chinese geography or cultural attractions. This reinforces its association with the genre of travel writing, since it reads similarly to a blog or guidebook introducing the uninitiated to notable routes and destinations through the lens of the author’s own experience. Shen Fu’s dedication to conveying such detailed accounts of his travels is testament to his extraordinary love of travelling, and his appreciation for both natural and manmade sites of beauty. This contributes significantly to the text’s presentation of The Value of Simplicity and the Natural World. Just as much of the preceding three parts can be considered a love letter to Chen Yun, so too can this section be read as a love letter to the nation of China and its many wonders. The sheer number of places that Shen Fu has visited, lived in, or travelled through speaks to the unpredictable, unstable and nomadic life of a yamen private secretary during the Qing dynasty. Government officials were moved around the country frequently so as to discourage corruption and meet the needs of the hefty nationwide bureaucracy. This put their employees in an even more precarious position, either following them to a new city or seeking alternative employment. In Shen Fu’s case, the nomadic lifestyle is also a testament to his “floating life” and his seeming aversion to being tied down or restrained.

This part is the most strictly chronological of the text’s four parts, with plentiful references to Shen Fu’s age and the date during different episodes of his life. This allows for the establishment of an accurate timeline of his life. It also fills in many of the gaps in Shen Fu’s life story, which were left by the incomplete and otherwise-focused nature of the preceding parts. Its contents also shed light on facets of Shen Fu’s life that were glossed over in other sections. For instance, his costly months-long diversion among the flower boats at Guangdong could very well have been what so motivated Chen Yun to seek out an attractive young courtesan in Han Yan to attempt to retrain her husband’s focus and interest on their household. His relationship with Xi’er may be uncomfortable to a modern reader because of how keenly it illustrates the unhappy position of many women during this historical period, as well as the thoughtless complicity of all those who participate in the oppressive system. This normalization of exploitation and suffering is a stark example of Filial Duty and the Position of Women. Shen Fu’s thoughtless abandonment of Xi’er is within the bounds of propriety and morality within his contemporary society, despite its devastating effects on the girl. Similarly, his infidelity to Chen Yun is above reproach in a culture with prescribes monogamy only for wives. Shen Fu’s behavior in this part adds a depth and complexity to his previously idealized relationship with Chen Yun, contributing to the theme of The Enduring Nature of Love and Companionship, and highlighting just how extraordinary Shen Fu’s equal, respectful, and loving relationship with Chen Yun was under the circumstances.

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