• Title: Six Records of a Floating Life
• Author: Shen Fu
• Genre/Subject: Chinese literature
• Publisher: Amazon
• Publication Date: 2024
• Start date: 7/27/24
• Finish date: 7/30/24

Review:

This was an excellent book and a great read. Like any Chinese literature, or classical literature generally, you need to take your time and try to absorb the meaning rather than just skimming along like you would with a contemporary novel. I absorbed a lot and this was time well spent. The translation was excellent in my opinion, although not being a Mandarin speaker I can’t say that definitively but I felt it read very smoothly.

Shen Fu was a scholar and poet born in 1763 who lived and wrote during the Qing Dynasty period in China. The Six Records showcases Fu’s keen observations of daily life in 18th century and his intimate portrayal of human emotions. Don’t get me wrong, Shen Fu does a lot of drinking and a lot of prostitutes, so he is a poet and scholar but also a man of his times, an 18th century Bro if you will. This was actually refreshing because so often we expect the heros in literature to be paragons of virtue and that’s never the case in life.

The book is divided into six sections as the title suggests. Joys, sorrows, travels, the scholarly life, visits to other regions and even other countries are all beautifully described and gives you a unique glimpse into daily life in Imperial China.

The sixth and final section titled The Way to Health is a well written treatise on healthy living. Like Seneca’s essays the focus is on living YOUR best life, not the life that society or others think you should live. And that life is short so get busy living it. Like Seneca, Fu makes it clear that is not an invitation to just go party and throw everything to the wind. Filial piety and one’s obligations are important, indeed necessary to living a good life, but they are not intended to be all that you do in your span of years. My favorite quotation is this little gem:

“If one waits until old age to nurture life, it is like starting to save money after becoming poor. Even if one is very diligent it will be of no avail.”

I can’t improve on that so I’ll end on that note.