Book Report: Six Chapters of a Floating Life

Introduction

Recently, I have read Six Chapters of a Floating Life, an autobiographical novel by Shen Fu who was a painter and poet during Qing Dynasty. The author is not so famous in the history of literature that I had not learnt about him before my teacher introduced this book to us. However, Six Chapters of a Floating Life is worth reading, which depicts the author's life with his wife and without his wife. The version I have read was translated by Yin Yutang and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Feb, 1999.

This book has four chapters, Wedded Bliss, The Little Pleasures of Life, Sorrow, The Joys of Travel. It was said that the other two chapters are missing and that what we can read on other books were created by some one else. Through Six Chapters of a Floating Life, the author presents an image of a lovely couple who love each other deeply. Although they lived in Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago, we can conjure up the pictures of their life, full of ups and downs, via the author's description. The author takes advantage of his life experience as clues to narrate different stages and different aspects of his life. With each of chapters containing a thematic content, the whole book is well-organized and clear for readers to follow the clue of the author's writhing.

The name of the book, especially "a Floating Life", originated from a poem by Li Bai who was a genius poet during Tang Dynasty. The poet expressed his muse on life. So did Shen Fu. He uses simple and natural words to note most of his life combined with joys and miseries, both of which are moving and real making readers smile or sentimentalize from the bottom of heart.

Summary of Content

Wedded Bliss

Wedded Bliss is mainly about the happy life of Shen Fu and his wife Chen Yun who is regarded as the loveliest woman in the history of China by Yin Yutang. She is one of the author's cousins and ten months older than him. They knew each other well when they were young, which leads them to understand each other better. Shen Fu treats Chen Yun as a soul mate who shares with his feelings and ideas. Though Chen Yun is not so beautiful, her capability, gentleness, kindheartedness and considerateness contribute to her attractiveness to Shen Fu. There's no doubt that any couple who read this chapter will admire their relationship based on deep love. It is the author's sincere and passionate love to his wife that drives him to describe the affection between couple so detailedly and influentially with plain and honest words.

The Little Pleasures of Life

The Little Pleasures of Life portrays his activities in leisure time: catching mosquitoes in the childhood, planting and arranging flowers, discussing poems and paintings with his friends and wife, visiting gardens and drinking. All of these experiences manifest that Shen Fu has a wide range of knowledge from planting to gardening, which equips him with unique visions and original ideas. Shen Fu is modest about his rich knowledge, but readers can recognize his outstanding creativity and insights into the nature through his storytelling. In spite of poverty, the couple is satisfied with their peaceful life. What moves me most in this chapter is the couple's attitude to life. They find beauty, create beauty and enjoy the process, impressing the friends besides them unintentionally.

Sorrow

In Sorrow, the author puts the focus on the frustrations his family goes through. In the big family with his brother and parents, conflicts appear and become more severe, while in the small family only with his children and wife, Chen Yun dies of illness and his son is dead young, which compounds Shen Fu's misfortune who is born in the rich family and accustomed to the affluent life without setbacks. He suffers from his untrustworthy brother who hits him when he is down and his autocratic father who has bad temper. It is because of so many unexpected family changes that Chen Yun's illness

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