Shen Fu

Shen Fu (Traditional Chinese: 沈復; Simplified Chinese: 沈复; Hanyu Pinyin:Shěn Fù, 1763-1810?) was a Chinese writer in the Ch'ing dynasty.

Life

"Shen Fu" or "Shen Sanbai" (Shěn Sānbái) was born in Changzhou(now in Suzhou,Jiangsu province) in 1763. He was known as a great writer and wrote one of the best known descriptions of everyday life during the Qing Dynasty, Six Records of a Floating Life. In this text, which was completed in 1807, Shen Fu describes the gentle personality of his wife, Chen Yun, and his love for her. He also chronicles the rejection of Chen Yun by his parents and her untimely death. Shen Fu was a government clerk, a "yamen" private secretary. More broadly, he also seems to have been a painter and an occasional trader or businessman, although he failed at these attempts.

Six Records of a Floating Life is published in English, in a most excellent translation, available as a Penguin paperback. It is considered a great classic of Chinese literature.

Family

Chen Yun was Shen Fu’s cousin and she was ten months elder than Shen Fu. They had known each other since childhood. Chen Yun was very clever and practical, she was good at embroidery while she could also write beautiful poems. When she was young, her father taught her “Pipa Xing” (a long poem written by Bai Juyi) word by word,and she could recite it at once. However, she lost her father and lived with her mother and a young brother when she was only four. Though they lived a hard life, Chen Yun try to support her family with her practical hands. She learnt how to read and write while doing workers. When Shen Fu followed his mother to visit her, he was attracted by his cousin’s gentleness and beauty. Shen Fu told her mother he’d like to marry Chen Yun and she agreed. They were engaged at 13. One day, Shen Fu was hungry after attending a wedding of another cousin’s wedding. He didn’t like the dinner the maid gave him. Then Chen Yun asked him to come to her room with some porridge and light dishes. But Chen Yun’s brother came in and played jokes with them. Chen Yun was shy and avoided to see Shen Fu until they got married. They loved each other very much. Chen Yun knew flower arrangement very well and she always made their study warm and fragrent. This made her husband see her as a soulmate since they shared the same taste. There were also some interesting things in their life. Since women could not go out and be seen in public in ancient times, Chen Yun couldn’t enjoy life outside. Shen Fu arrived at the idea of dressing Chen Yun as a man and it worked. Chen Yun was one of the few women who could experience much at that time. They had a couple of seals with " Being couple generation after generation " and prayed they could be together all lifelong. Sadly she was lose to her mother-in-law ( who was also her aunt) and was forced to move out of the house with her husband. Their life was too poor to get good health care. Later, Chen Yun died in an early age and left her loving husband.