Six Chapters of a Floating Life (Guomai Classic)

"Six Chapters of a Floating Life" is an autobiographical prose written by Shen Fu, a literati in the Qing Dynasty. Because it uses true words to express true feelings without any deliberate pretense, it is natural and unique, reaching the realm of "joy but not obscenity, sadness but not sadness". It is highly praised by later generations of literati and has been passed down to this day and has become a classic. This publication selected Kaiming Bookstore's Republic of China version as the base, and re-edited it based on the "Yanlaihong Congbao" version, Shuangfeng Society's Republic of China version, and Lin Yutang's English translation; Zhang Jiawei was asked to carefully translate and write a long translation as a guide for readers; it is exclusively included "The Life of Shen Fu" (Chronology), "Pictures of Shen Fu's Thirty Years' Travels", and "Preface to the First Edition of the Third Year of Guangxu", "Inscription by Pan Lusheng" and "Postscript to the First Edition of the Third Year of Guangxu" are attached, so that readers can better understand China's most beautiful classics and benefit from them. Shen Fu, whose courtesy name is Sanbai and whose nickname is Meiyi. In the 28th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1763), he was born in a scholar's family by the Canglang Pavilion in the south of Gusu City. He married his uncle Chen Yun at the age of eighteen. After getting married, the couple had a close relationship and loved each other very deeply. However, their lives were full of troubles and things often went against their wishes. Fortunately, they stayed away from the secular world and enjoyed themselves amidst hardships. They worked together for twenty-three years, and until Yun Ji died of illness, their love was still as deep as before. After that, Shen Fu left home and wandered around, writing six volumes of "Six Chapters of a Floating Life". After the book was completed, it was not published, but it was widely circulated and copied among the people and was cherished. During the Daoguang period, Yang Yinchuan, a scholar from the south of the Yangtze River, bought it at a market bookstall, and his sister-in-law Wang Tao published it at the Shenpai Hall. Because it uses true words to describe true feelings and is never deliberately artificial, it has been highly praised by later generations of literati and has been passed down to this day and has become a classic. Among them, "Zhongshan Ji Li" and "Health Preservation Ji Dao", the editions purchased by Yang Yinchuan have been lost. During the Republic of China, it was said that the complete text had been found and published, including two missing notes. However, it was actually pieced together and fabricated by people at the time. Later there are often rumors that the original version of the lost diary has appeared, and there may be related or fragments, but so far it has not been confirmed to be reliable and complete. Therefore, this edition only includes the four records recorded in the original version: "Records of Joy in the Boudoir", "Records of Leisure Love", "Records of Troubles and Sorrows" and "Records of Wandering Travels".