44 pages • 1 hour read
Shen FuSix Records of a Floating Life
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1809A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Enduring Nature of Love and Companionship
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide and sexual violence.
The relationship between Shen Fu and Chen Yun is one of the most important elements of Six Records of a Floating Life. It is the focus of Part 1 and also features heavily in the following two parts. Furthermore, Shen Fu is seldom alone throughout the whole course of the book, with practically every episode of his life seeing him in the company of a friend, lover, relation, or group of companions. Through Shen Fu’s relationship with Chen Yun and with his friends, the author highlights the resilience of love despite gender differences, socioeconomic obstacles, and other barriers.
The most prominent example of love and companionship in the text is Shen Fu’s marriage to Chen Yun; theirs is one of the most celebrated literary romances to come out of the Qing period. The marriage spans more than two decades until Chen Yun’s untimely end, and their love persists beyond death in Shen Fu’s grief, his immortalized reminiscences of their life together in Six Records of a Floating Life and in their vows to be reunited in the next life. Shen Fu’s admiration for Chen Yun is evident in the way he describes and presents her throughout the text. From their first meeting, his appreciation for his personal qualities and skills only grows, deepening into a love that sees him valuing her highly as his partner and equal. Chen Yun’s actions and words, particularly her heartfelt deathbed farewell, give no reason to doubt that Shen Fu’s feelings were returned in full. The idyllic relationship between Shen Fu and Chen Yun prospers despite flaws and mistakes on the parts of both characters, showing how love and companionship can flourish despite imperfections. They share the highs and lows of fortune, and they support each other without resentment through the many hardships they endure.
Loyalty is at the core of Shen Fu’s conception of The Enduring Nature of Love and Companionship. In addition to his loyalty to Chen Yun, he is also loyal to his many friends, lending money freely despite his own financial difficulties and receiving reciprocal loyalty, support, and loans from many of them in turn. Even years after death and circumstances part them, Shen Fu fondly remembers the companions of his youth. As an extrovert, Shen Fu thrives on social interaction, as evidenced by the fact that the periods of greatest joy and contentment in his life are all contingent on the quality of the company he keeps. In The Villa of Serenity, he hosts an endless succession of similarly minded friends, and in Guangdong, he becomes fully enmeshed in the community of women aboard the flower boats. Although he enjoys the company of the “sing-song girls” and Xi’er in particular, he clearly sees them as a source of companionship only. When his abandonment drives Xi’er to attempt death by suicide, it is ambiguous whether Shen Fu feels any remorse or culpability for his part in her misery. Their relationship was predicated on a massive power differential that Shen Fu had no intention of mitigating, ultimately contributing to the tragic end of their association.
Filial Piety and the Position of Women
Under the rule of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), the philosophy of Confucianism was at the core of cultural norms, social expectations, and official laws. The teachings of Confucius (551-479 BCE) prioritize filial piety, social rites and rules, and loyalty. This created a highly stratified society with strict hierarchies permeating all aspects of private and public life. Duty and loyalty were fundamental within this system of morals, with one of the most foundational moral obligations being a willingness to submit readily and respectfully to the authority of one’s prescribed superiors. In Six Records of a Floating Life, contemporary power structures and ideologies are reflected in the subjugation and duty of women and others in positions of inferiority to society.
Shen Fu had a duty of filial piety to his parents, which meant that he was subject to his father’s rule even as an adult and was expected to remain part of their household in order to care for them in their old age. Until his death, Shen Fu’s father legally had final say over practically all aspects of Shen Fu’s life, evidenced by his dictating Shen Fu’s career path and his refusal to allow Shen Fu to return to Guangdong. Accusations of unfilial behavior were harshly punished as a matter of law; Shen Fu’s father was being merciful by the standards of the day by allowing them to simply leave his household together after Chen Yun’s domestic faux pas. He could have just as rightfully forced them to divorce, disowned Shen Fu and ruined them completely, forced them to die by suicide, or had them executed.
Within the domestic sphere that is the focus of the text, the most pervasive and significant inequalities relate to the position of women and obligations of filial piety. During this period, China was a patriarchy, with the population divided into patrilineal households. The patriarch of each household held a position of ultimate power and status within the family, with the status and influence of each member of the household decreasing in various but strictly formalized ways dependent on their level of removal from the patriarch. For instance, men outranked women, elders outranked younger generations, members of the main line (direct descendants of the patriarch) outranked members of branch families, etc. In instances where a man had multiple wives, the number typically increasing in proportion to the family’s wealth and status, hierarchies became even more complex. Hierarchical relationships within the domestic sphere and elsewhere were predicated on an assumption of reciprocity, in that the patriarch or husband would have a duty of care over those under their power. However, these responsibilities were not enforced and could be flouted with impunity, as when Shen Fu’s decisions and failings force his wife and children into poverty.
An even more persuasive inequality in Qing society was the entrenched and codified sexism that saw women utterly subjugated by men. Women were barred from the vast majority of professions with the most notable exception being sex work. Although wives could be killed for even the suspicion of infidelity, there was no obligation or expectation for men to eschew extramarital liaisons or polygamy. The vast majority of people whom the text portrays as sex workers, particularly in the lower classes, were actually indentured servants sold, kidnapped, or forced by necessity into what was essentially sexual enslavement. Xi’er is an example of a low status sex worker whose only hope of a better life is the slim chance that a patron might buy her as a concubine (a lower class of wife). Xi’er’s despair at Shen Fu’s abandonment after such a significant period of favoritism is therefore one of the most pathos-laden manifestations of this theme in the text. Han Yuan, alternatively, is a higher class courtesan who does not sell sexual favors along with her company, but who is essentially auctioned off to the highest bidder by her mother/“owner.”
For the majority of women in this society, the only viable path in life was marriage. Marriage forced women from their homes into the households of their husbands, entirely beholden to their spouse and his family, with little recourse if they were mistreated. Their quality of life was highly variable dependent on the character, circumstances, and permissiveness of their husbands, as well as the level of welcome extended by their in-laws. Marriages were arranged as matters of family business rather than love, with the primary focus being financial and domestic stability, and, particularly in upper-class matches, the production of heirs. Generally, wives were expected to remain within the husband’s household almost exclusively, interacting little with the world beyond their domestic sphere. This philosophy of control and subjugation is exemplified in the normalization of foot-binding among all but the lowest classes. This practice made the permanent, perilous, and painful crippling of women to cater to the male gaze into a near mandatory symbol of status, and a prerequisite on the marriage market.
It was far from guaranteed that any marriage made at this time would be a source of harmony or love for the couple in question. Differences in status, life experience, and expectations between men and women meant that it was the norm for husbands and wives to have little in common, and for many husbands to view their wives as possessions rather than partners. The relationship between Shen Fu and Chen Yun is a rare and celebrated depiction of conjugal love and mutual respect from a period wherein the deeply entrenched subjugation of women created significant barriers between men and women.
The Value of Simplicity and the Natural World
Shen Fu places significant importance on The Value of Simplicity and the Natural World. This theme is therefore prominent throughout Six Records of a Floating Life, particularly in Parts 2 and 4. Simplicity and artlessness are key to traditional conceptions of elegance, which is fundamental to the cultural perception of beauty. Artists of all disciples borrow heavily from nature and frequently depict or reference natural phenomena. The three virtues are inextricably linked, both in Shen Fu’s writing and more broadly in traditional Chinese aesthetic principles.
As a well-educated scholar and painter, Shen Fu is intimately familiar with traditional Chinese conceptions of beauty. He appreciates traditional visual artforms including painting, calligraphy, flower arranging, and the cultivation of gardens and miniature potted trees. Although he purports that his notions of beauty are shaped by his own tastes rather than the opinions of others, Shen Fu tends to celebrate forms of beauty that are conventionally attractive according to established Chinese aesthetics and contemporary fashions. For instance, he has no admiration for the sing-song girls in foreign or fanciful dress, only appreciating those who are more familiarly attired.
Shen Fu’s appreciation of beauty is also manifested in his passion for glorious natural landscapes, mountains and famous views. These have been the subject of admiration in Chinese culture and across the world since time immemorial. He has had little opportunity to experience unspoiled, entirely natural landscapes beyond the reach of human influence, which is a source of major regret for him. However, he appreciates mastery of skilled human intervention in the natural world, as in cultivated gardens or potted trees. Thus, Shen Fu’s appreciation of beauty is as simple as it is sophisticated, instinctive as it is refined. Shen Fu also appreciates the experiences that are available through excursions into the natural world. Part 4 of the book is dedicated to his travels, with the majority of its pages recounting trips undertaken through the wonders of nature alongside favored companions.
Beyond this, Shen Fu also preaches the importance of simple sensual pleasures such as good music, fragrant incense, sweet tasting fruits, and sexual gratification with beautiful women. He has few earthly ambitions beyond fulfilling his appetite for these three valued qualities of beauty, simplicity, and the natural world. Together with Chen Yun, he fantasizes about a secluded and tranquil life in a simple rural cottage or in the imaginary world they create in a potted miniature landscape, a simple life full of beauty within the bosom of nature.
