Six Records of a Floating Life

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide, alcohol addiction, and sexual violence.

Shen Fu was born during the winter of 1763 to a family of wealthy officials in Suzhou. His family lived next to the celebrated Pavilion of the Waves, and he grew up happy and privileged during a time of “peace and plenty.” The first girl to whom Shen Fu was engaged died while they were both still children, so he instead married his cousin Chen Yun. From her earliest childhood, Chen Yun proved to be exceptionally clever and resourceful. She easily memorized the poem The Mandolin Song and then used a written copy of the poem to teach herself to read. Her father died when she was four, and so she learnt to embroider well enough that she was able to singlehandedly support family and pay for her brother’s education. In her free time, she taught herself to write poetry.

Shen Fu was impressed with her poems and her embroidery skills when first they met at age 13, and although Chen Yun was no great beauty, he found her deeply attractive. He told his mother that he’d marry no one but Chen Yun, and since his mother also liked Chen Yun’s gentleness, she agreed to arrange the match. Shen Fu’s mother gave Chen Yun one of her own gold rings to seal the engagement. Chen Yun hoped that since she herself had had no formal education, Shen Fu would act as a teacher to help her improve her poetry.

On one occasion, Shen Fu returned late to Chen Yun’s home after escorting some mutual family from a wedding to find that she had saved him a bowl of rice porridge. When Chen Yun’s cousin discovered that she had saved a meal for her fiancé despite claiming that there was no food left, the young couple was subject to much teasing. Thereafter Chen Yun was so embarrassed that she avoided Shen Fu until their wedding when they were 17. Shen Fu slept through their first night as a married couple, drunk from the wedding eve festivities for his sister’s impending nuptials. He returned late from further duties and celebrations the following night to find Chen Yun waiting up reading the quasi-erotic novel Romance of the Western Chamber, and they went to bed together.

As a new bride, Chen Yun was always amiable, respectful, and proper, rising early each day so that her in-laws would not think her lazy. Her only demand was that she and Shen Fu treat each other with courtesy and politeness so that no disputes, however unserious, would arise between them from casual instances of disrespect or incivility. Shen Fu saw her reason and agreed, so that even as they fell deeper in love, they treated each other with ever increasing politeness. They quickly became close, taking every opportunity to spend time in each other’s company. Chen Yun and he shared the same tastes, and she seemed able to anticipate and fulfill his every want and need. Chen Yun was quiet when first they married, but Shen Fu encouraged and coaxed her into becoming a masterful conversationalist.

Shen Fu still can’t understand how some old couples seem to hate each other, even though conventional wisdom dictates that such animosity is necessary for a couple to grow old together. He once lamented that Chen Yun was a woman since that meant she was unable to join him on his travels. She proposed that they could journey together in their old age, when propriety would not matter so much. Or, if they prove unequal to the rigors of travelling while elderly, she suggested they could travel together in the next life. Shen Fu hopes that they will marry again in their next lives, with him reincarnated as a woman and her a man. They had a portrait created of the Old Man of the Moon, a figure of traditional folklore responsible for bringing couples together, so that they could worship him and pray to be reunited in their next incarnations.

They were separated for three months after their first month of marriage, when Shen Fu’s father called him away to complete his studies under a renowned teacher. Shen Fu was despondent at the separation, and angry that Chen Yun was so supportive and encouraging without expressing any of her own unhappiness. So great was Shen Fu’s misery and distraction that his teacher released him from his studies early and sent him home, education unfinished. Shen Fu was so relieved and happy to be reunited with Chen Yun that it felt as though their souls became one. In order to escape the summer heat, they relocated to a small hall overlooking a stream where Shen Fu’s father would sometimes entertain guests. It was too hot to work, so the couple just read and talked together, playing literary drinking games and discussing poetry in perfect happiness.

They celebrated the annual Qixi festival of lovers together, watching the moon over the water. They also celebrated the Ghost Festival together the following week, but this time the moon was initially hidden behind the clouds. This upset them both because it was a bad omen, but as they laughed together over a game of poetry composition and flirtingly bantered over the relative merits of their respective perfumes, the moon emerged. Their delight was quickly overshadowed by fear as they heard a splash that Shen Fu attributes to a ghost. The lamplight flickered low all night, indicating a supernatural presence, and they both fell seriously ill with a fever. Shen Fu now knows the events of that night were an omen foretelling that they would not grow old together. In addition to a younger brother Chi Tang, Shen Fu has 26 adopted brothers and 9 adopted sisters. He took Chen Yun and one of his sisters to the Pavilion of the Waves during one Mid Autumn Festival so that the young women could celebrate in the traditional manner of walking together hand in hand under the moonlight. Chen Yun got on well with several of Shen Fu’s sisters, often having sleepovers with them that saw Shen Fu exiled from his marriage bed, which he jokingly threatened to reciprocate by spending the night with his sisters’ husbands once they themselves married.

Later, the family moved to a house far from The Pavilion of the Waves. Chen Yun found consolation for her grief at losing access to the beautiful park in the quaint cottage and idyllic garden next door. Shen Fu obtained permission for them to rent the cottage and stay there through the summer. They enjoyed the rural atmosphere and fantasized about buying the land there one day. Now the thought of the cottage fills Shen Fu with grief, because Chen Yun is no longer alive to fulfill their dream. Every year, Shen Fu would visit and tend to his uncle’s grave, bringing Chen Yun with him. One year, one of Shen Fu’s sisters accompanied them to the grave and a nearby mountain. The couple took turns teasing the girl and taking her side as she collected flowers and pretty stones.

Shen Fu was once invited by a friend to help out at an annual flower festival at a nearby temple, where families compete in the creation of flower arrangements. Both he and Chen Yun thought it a shame that as a woman she would be unable to attend, so Shen Fu persuaded her to dress up as a man and accompany him in secret. While there, Chen Yun behaves too familiarly toward some young women and only escapes accusations of impropriety by revealing herself as a woman in disguise, much to the amusement of the attendees. On another instance, he organized for Chen Yun to secretly leave their home and join him on a trip across Lake Tai so that she could see more of the world and visit the famous Ten Thousand Year Bridge. Soon after their return, a family friend tells Chen Yun that her husband was spotted drinking on a boat with two concubines during his trip. Chen Yun laughingly confesses that Shen Fu’s companions were actually her and the daughter of the boatman with whom they passed the journey making teasing conversation and playing drinking games.

Shen Fu’s friend acquires a concubine whose merits fail to impress Chen Yun. She attempts likewise to secure a concubine for Shen Fu, setting her heart on the renowned and beautiful young courtesan Han Yuan. She and Han Yuan get on well enough that they swear an oath of sisterhood, and Chen Yun proposes to the girl on her husband’s behalf. Although Han Yuan seems in favor of the match and accepts the symbolic gift of a jade bracelet, she cannot formally agree without the approval of her mother/madame. Although Chen Yun sees the arrangement as all but formalized, Shen Fu is doubtful of their ability to procure or support so expensive a companion as Han Yuan. Indeed, his doubts prove founded as Han Yuan is instead married off to a wealthy merchant, breaking Chen Yun’s heart and seemingly contributing to her untimely demise.