The Six Memoirs of a Floating Life records the life of Shen Fu's husband and wife, the couple's love in the fragments, and the poetry in the wood, rice, oil, salt, soy, vinegar and tea. Lin Yutang said Yuniang was the loveliest woman in the history of literature. This pair of Qing dynasty couple, their love, living out what we thought was the best of love.
But there was a gray and mottled side to their lives, and reading Six Records of a Floating Life you get the sense that Shen Fu and Yuniang's lives were half illuminated by flames, bright and interesting, and half drowned in seawater, uprooted, and with unrecountable hardships.
Why Shen Fu and Yuniang, their love, beautiful as it is?
Why are they so trapped, like fine jade falling to the ground?
The first time they met, they were 13 years old, both the same year. Shen Fu is 10 months younger than Yuniang, and is a cousin, Shen Fu called Yuniang "Shu sister". The two young, Shen Fu said to his mother, if you have to give me a wife, I am non-shu sister do not marry. This is how the marriage was concluded.
The winter of the engagement, Yuniang cousin married, Shen Fu and his mother went to the banquet. That night Shen Fu sent friends and relatives out of the city, returned to the day is already three days, hungry, can eat only some sweet and greasy fruit store. At this time Yuniang secretly pull his sleeve, it turned out that her house inside the warm to Shen Fu prepared porridge and small dishes. The results did not eat, it turned out that her cousin, over to poke fun at them, attracted a lot of people, everyone laughed, Yuniang very embarrassed red face to avoid. Later, Shen Fu came, Yuniang are avoided. Shen Fu knows Yuniang thin skin, afraid of others poking fun at jokes.
When Shen Fu see Yuniang is the wedding night, uncovered the red head to look at each other with love, drink fm radio, two hands hold each other, the groom's heart thumping, the bride's heartbeat like pounding rice. In the honeymoon, than shoulder to shoulder laughing, will be reunited with close friends, Shen Fu see Yuniang a look back, will feel a wisp of love into the soul, embrace it into the account, do not know the East is white.
Shen Fu also need to continue his studies, respectively, even though the peach and plum competition, but feel the world has changed color. Two people a goodbye three months, feel the days are difficult, a day is like ten years. Shen Fu always in the night to the scene of nostalgia, dreaming. Mr. saw him like this and gave him a vacation.
On the way home, a moment like a year. Back home. The two men shook hands and stared at each other, but could not say a word, and the two souls seem to be suddenly turned into smoke into fog, oblivious to the body, do not know more.
Then they lived in the Canglang Pavilion Irene residence. The two of them read books and discuss ancient times, tasting the moon and evaluating flowers. The two of them are the same, and they are inseparable.
At Tanabata, the Chinese Valentine's Day, they carved a seal saying "I wish to be husband and wife for the rest of my life". The two of them each hold a piece, as a letter of correspondence.
They once promised to be husband and wife in the next life, and they even imagined how they would see each other in the next life. They were afraid that they would not be able to fulfill their wish, so they asked a connoisseur to draw a picture of the moon goddess, and the couple prayed sincerely that they would be husband and wife again in the next life.
Yuniang listen to Shen Fu depicted the temple "flowers will be", is very stunning yearning, Shen Fu let Yuniang women dressed as men, wearing Shen Fu's clothes, wearing Shen Fu's hat, combing braid eyebrow, the two a lot of tossing and turning, dressed as a man. Yuniang also practiced imitating men's arching hands and striding. Although the dress has been, but Yuniang and change her mind, afraid of being known by her mother-in-law, Shen Fu encouraged, one of the places to go, no one will recognize you, the second is the mother went out as a guest. Yuniang laughed at her own appearance in the mirror. Shen Fu was forced to take his arm to go out.
At the temple, no one recognized Yuniang as a woman, they really thought she was Shen Fu's cousin.
Shen Fu went to Wujiang condolences, to pass through the Taihu Lake, Yuniang admired the scenery of Taihu Lake, want to go together. So and mother-in-law said back to her mother's home, and so Shen Fu to the pier, Yuniang sedan chair then also arrived, and boarded the boat to Wujiang. Taihu Lake, sails and sand birds, water and sky, Yuniang sighed in admiration: now see the width of heaven and earth, not vain this life.
Shen Fu disembarked to pay homage to the Qian family, returned to the boat, the boat is empty, Yuniang is not even in the rush to look for, the original Yuniang afraid of money in case the family will be on board, go ashore to avoid to the Willow Yin go to see the fish eagle fishing. Yuniang asked, how to come back so quickly. Shen Fu smiled and said, back to capture the boat escape ah!
The longer time passes, the deeper the two emotions. Within the family, if the two meet in a dark room, encountered in the passage, will shake hands and ask where to go. If Yuniang is sitting with others gossip, see Shen Fu over, will get up, move out of the position, the couple sat side by side. They often wondered why some old couples in the world looked at each other as if they were enemies.
There are two dozen of these couples in the *** account of the "Boudoir". The writing is simple yet delicate, and everything is true. I always marvel that love can be so beautiful!
Why is Shen Fu Yuniang's love so beautiful? It is because they understand each other and are willing to fulfill each other.
You leave me porridge and small dishes to be funny, and then I came to always avoid, I don't blame you, because I know that you are thin-skinned, can't stand the joke.
After the wedding, you get up just after the sun comes out. Even if I said to you, now do not have to be as hard as you do at home as a girl, you said the main fear of mother-in-law will say the new daughter-in-law lazy. I felt for your character and followed suit by getting up early.
You always like to say humble words, such as, "I dare not", "offended". At first I didn't like it, thinking it was pedantic and false fearing that you would use etiquette to constrain me. But then I followed you and said "I dare not" and "I am sorry".
You are a strange woman, if you are a man, you can stand in front of the public, talent and insight must be extraordinary. If you are a man, you can travel with me all over the world and visit famous mountains. If you can't do it in this life, if there is a next life, I'll be a woman and follow you.
Dressing up as a man to go to the flower photo session, I know you're having fun, I don't want to use that set of women's morals to constrain you.
So you want to go to see Taihu Lake, and what's not to like? You said it would be a waste of time to see the earth and sky so wide, and I understand because I'm the same.
Knowing that you like to make friends and have an eclectic nature, you like to keep them drinking. I then pulled off the hairpin on my head to go and change the wine back.
When I left, I look back on my life, life has bitter and sweet, you give me a confidant like love, is the bright color of my life, I wish the next life as once expected that still do husband and wife.
The world lamented that marrying a man is not Shen Sanbai, preferring Yuniang to marry the landlord. As a man, from the perspective of realism, Shen Fu is flunked.
In mundane affairs, Shen Fu does not have the ability to hold up a family, so life is deteriorating, Yuniang afraid to spend money on resolutely not cure, but also because of the embroidery of the heart scripture embroidery price is high, hold up the sick body, do not stop rushing to the work, so that the blood disease aggravated, and a backache and dizziness of the new problem.
But, in the era of women easily out of the door, women are oppressed by male power, married to the landlord of the Yuniang, or Shen Fu success such as Zeng Guofan, Yuniang or so vivid Yuniang? Yuniang's own character is also flawed, she is extremely bad at human interaction, which will be discussed later, and may end up with no husband's care.
Shen Fu is a small piece of heaven for Yuniang, and this small piece of heaven is the male-dominated world of his wife's tolerance. Since her father died when she was a child, it was the little Yuniang who supported the family with her exquisite embroidery work and helped her brother pay for his tuition. Her mother and brother are dependent on her, unlike other young ladies who follow their father at home. So Yuniang's nature was rosy, and deep down she didn't have so many scruples about etiquette. Respect, guidance and encouragement, this is Shen Fu for Yuniang's love, this kind of love at that time in the environment, is so precious. Because of this, Yuniang's nature was not suppressed, and her joy as a human being rather than a woman was preserved and revealed.
Shen Fu's Yuniang's behavior can not be explained in secular language, all the shocking, all from the rosy natural, in the history of Chinese literature, she is a lifelong girl to maintain the appearance of the woman. You will not believe that such a woman such a couple from the Qing Dynasty.
So even if life's hardships, Yuniang on her deathbed, recalling the twenty-three years of life with Shen Fu, still feel that this life can be a confidant, has been no regrets.
Shen Fu's deep love all in the pen, Yuniang is his most perfect wife, Yuniang that is Shen Fu's dish ah. Shen Fu spared no ink, detailed depiction of ordinary couples of vegetables and rice soup, playful and joyful, two loving, so that we seem to have traveled through time and space, truly witnessed the happiness between him and Yuniang, felt his later suffering. The depth of love and affection moved the viewer.
Their love for each other is illuminated by the flame, which is vivid and beautiful. Even the light penetrates through the centuries, illuminating the present, so that modern people also admire.
In order to avoid the summer heat, the two went to the Canglang Pavilion side of the rented room. It was July.
During the day, they fished deep in the shade of the willows. At sunset, they climbed up Tushan Mountain together to watch the sunset and the sun set, and casually wrote lines such as "The beast swallowed the sunset, and the moon popped the shooting star". When it was late, the moon shone in the pool, and the sound of insects rose up, so we set up the bamboo cave by the fence. I was able to drink by the moonlight, and I didn't eat until I was slightly tipsy.
After bathing, wearing sandals, holding a banana fan, sitting or lying down, listening to the old man in the neighborhood to say some stories of karma. Only at three o'clock did they go back to bed, so cool and refreshed that they almost forgot they were living in the city.
Then she was kicked out of her home, and lived in a small house, where she used partitions to increase the space, burned incense in the quiet room, and used white paper to paste the walls, just like the ancient method.
When the summer lotus first bloomed, she used a small gauze bag to pinch a small amount of tea and placed it in the heart of the lotus flower, and then took it out the next morning to cook rainwater and make tea, which was a wonderful experience.
In the countryside there is no flower arrangement of flowers, local materials, made of "living screen".
For the convenience of drinking with food, with five plates glued together, made of plum blossom plate, used to hold snacks.
Shen Fu has a study of rockery, the two went to the mountains to sweep the tomb they picked up stones back, made miniature rockery, very elegant.
Many people think that leisure is to live a carefree life without worries, in fact, not, Shen Fu and Yuniang always make use of the local conditions of the day to live a poetic and picturesque. For example, do live screen, when they were expelled from the family, but also because for the debtor forced to live in the countryside, Yuniang is seriously ill, as long as life continues, Yuniang will be able to use the mind, so that life has bright colors. Shen Fu is also optimistic, borrowing money on the way home, took the opportunity to tour Mount Yu. This may be the reason why Shen Fu recorded the struggles of life truthfully, but we can not read the resentment and anger.
So in the face of adversity, the heart should not be buried by negative emotions, still love the beauty of life, create beauty, light up life. This is the reason why Shen Fu and Yuniang have a life, then there is a petty sentiment, right?
This couple who love life and have a taste for life, how will their lives deteriorate and why will they be in trouble?
Six Records of a Floating Life is a remnant of the volume, there are only four records, "boudoir record of joy", "leisure record of interest", "bumpy record of sadness", "wave travel record fast", the so-called foot of the book, it is the later with Shen Fu almost the era of the people who wrote the imposition of the.
The autobiographical notes written by a scholar from a large feudal family, rarely enlightened. The small family life of the two men alone seems to fit seamlessly into modern times, which is astonishing. Presumably Shen Fu, who put pen to paper, possessed a rare free soul, and Yuniang, who was described to pen, also had a free soul. This makes us feel as if we are only seeing two free souls, while ignoring the strictness of feudalism and the repressed humanity of the feudal system behind them. But can they withstand the wind and snow of that kind of life?
Shen Fu and Yuniang all their lives, and their own character defects related to the family interest disputes and villainous incitement to set up, and other factors, and then the main thing is that the couple have *** with the same straight and uninhibited and feudal etiquette contradictory.
The end of the change is the big family inside the name of the beginning of the Yuniang, Shen Fu in the family ranked third, at the beginning, everyone called Yuniang for the third mother, but later called her the third wife. The rule of the extended family was that only women over 30 years old were called Mrs.. Yuniang had only been in the family for a short time, but everyone in the family, young and old, called her Third Mistress. This shows that Yuniang, when she arrived at the mansion, attracted people's attention. At the same time, she failed to deal with the relationship with the seven aunts and eight aunts in the mansion, and did not know how to make others respect her, one step back and then step back.
Because of Yuniang's literacy, the eunuch let Yuniang write letters on his behalf. Gradually there were some bad remarks. The mother-in-law thought it was a dereliction of duty on the part of Yuniang. Yuniang lost the trust of both her aunt and her mother-in-law.
Because the father-in-law hinted at taking a concubine. The couple, Shen Fu and Yuniang, actually did search for a concubine for their father-in-law. These two couples love quotient, and this can be seen. In this way Yuniang completely lost her aunt's protection.
The cousin borrowed money and asked Yuniang to make a guarantee, and Yuniang made a guarantee for them. This is not enough, the cousin actually denied borrowing money, so that the eunuch misunderstood for the money borrowed by Yuniang herself, furious, and kicked them out of the house, which is the first time to be kicked out of the house. It wasn't until a few years later when the eunuch found out what happened that he moved back into the extended family.
Because her brother ran away and her mother died, Yuniang was so sad that she got a blood disease.
This is when Yuniang actually took a concubine for Shen Fu (this is a diaphragm that later generations can not understand, and can only be explained by limitations, I guess). Later this concubine was taken by someone powerful. Yuniang's blood disease recurred because she hated herself for being fooled. Plus, because of the matter of helping her father-in-law take a concubine, her mother-in-law loathed Yuniang more and more every day.
At this time, Shen Fu did not have the ability to support the family. He could only open a calligraphy and painting gallery at home, but he did not know how to run it, and the income he earned in three days was not enough to pay for one day's expenses.
The next door neighbor to borrow, looking for Shen Fu as a guarantee. Shen Fu gullibly agreed, the result of the borrower ran away, the debtor to find Shen Fu to pay back the money. The debt is insolvent. The family's life is increasingly difficult. The father of Shen Fu, who was the owner of the house, was angered again. For the second time, he was kicked out of the house, and this time, he did not have to go back. They have a daughter and a son, the daughter is only 13 years old, because out to avoid the debt, they promised to be a child bride. The son, Feng Sen, was even younger and stayed at home.
The day they left home, they got up early. When it was time to eat breakfast. Yuniang earnestly instructed her daughter. At this time the son was also awakened. He cried out, saying that he would never see his mother again. It was a prophecy. Yuniang's heart was broken. She could not even walk on the road. Shen Fu carried her to the boat.
At her best friend's house in the countryside, Yuniang turned a little better, and led a slightly more peaceful life. But the good times don't last long, Yuniang girlfriends gifted slave A Shuang escape, Yuniang feel sorry for girlfriends, but also afraid of A Shuang's family anonymous son blackmail.
Yunniang's illness worsened. Eventually, she fell ill and died in her hometown.
Shen Fu collected for Yuniang.
Shen Fu, a widower, was so gullible that he borrowed 20 gold from someone else, and he earnestly instructed that it was for moving Yuniang's grave and that he must return it. The money he borrowed was never heard from again.
The death of Yuniang has been very tragic, and then, Shen Fu's father also died. The estate totaled *** three or four thousand gold. Shen Fu only got his father's books pen and ink. At this time Shen Fu's brother, actually let his nephew Feng Sen, wrote to Shen Fu, said his father's funeral to Shen Fu money. Literati intention of Shen Fu out of this money, lamented a heterosexual brother.
After that, their son, Feng Sen also died young.
Since then Shen Fu has been in a trance ever since.
Mourning his misfortune, angry at him isn't it? This pair of true couple, because of their respective character defects, faults almost can not yet complement each other. Not shrewd, do not understand the human world, can not be in the big family in the complex personnel, family interests of strife and villainous provocation set up and other factors, to make a place for themselves.
First, Yuniang loses her mother-in-law's favor. And Shen Fu was unable to mediate between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Even the concubinage for her father-in-law was written by Shen Fu to Yuniang. This couple has exactly the same low IQ and handles their household affairs in a mess.
Perhaps related to Yuniang's origin, Yuniang has not had a father since childhood, living with her brother's mother. With only a small family, no need to deal with the relationships within the extended family, no understanding of the human world and a roguish nature, Yuniang is missing the ability to deal with complex relationships.
And Shen Fu's character is too straight and scholarly. His life is all about writing and dancing, and he doesn't listen to the world. He has the stubborn straightforwardness of a man of letters, and the freedom of not being stuck in red tape.
If Shen Fu self-reliant a little, Yuniang would not be in order to live exhaustive, everywhere, not only can not afford to see a doctor, but also in the sick embroidery to support the family, the body was dragged down.
Easily trusting people, repeatedly deceived, all want to curse a cow that can not be taught ah, and finally forced by debt to go far away from home.
These ultimately led to him to face the twists and turns of fate without any force, living a good hand of cards broken, the days are getting more and more downtrodden, his wife died and his son was scattered, he has an unshirkable responsibility.
The above is certainly related to the two couples do not understand the human feelings, but also will not reflect on the lessons learned. But just their own reasons? The true nature of the young couple will occasionally be out of place, in the feudal family is out of place, will be ridiculed and rejected. The two couples are not good at dealing with people, and when things go wrong, they are isolated in the family as can be seen. Because there are competing interests, the villain is even worse. If the two couples live in modern times, the character will also have an impact, but their talent and Yuniang such as a school bully like learning ability, how could they live poorly. The constraints and limitations of the times magnify the fatality of their flaws. The ending is lamentable!
If we love the look of their love, then we have to understand that they loved each other as they were, and understood each other and made each other whole.
If we love the way they lived their lives, then we need to understand that even in the midst of their downward spiral, they had optimistic hearts and were still willing to do their best to make their lives better.
If we sigh at their ups and downs, empathize with their limitations and tolerate them. The characters have become history, and future generations will be able to appreciate and change them.