The great significance lies in becoming a symbol of history, a trace of mankind and a cold milestone. But it has no emotion, or complete emotion.
Behind the grand narrative is a vivid life. Those feelings and love that have passed away for thousands of years, those trivial and humble things engraved in someone's heart, decompose the rabble into living people with joys and sorrows, and deduce stories of joys and sorrows.
Six Chapters of a Floating Life is such a short book, written by an ordinary scholar more than 200 years ago, which records every bit of his life. The author had no ambition in his last life, but someone accidentally picked up the leftovers from the street stall. After printing, it is welcomed by modern people, so it can be said that nirvana is reborn.
Perhaps it is because it obscures the utilitarian plot that Six Chapters of a Floating Life shows its extraordinary vitality. After reading it, it is like living a real life without carving.
A thin little book is full of concentrated life, without any sublation and transformation. These seemingly dull but gloomy narratives in the book make people see the real people behind the historical chronology and read stories that point to people's hearts.
Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiographical essay by Shen Fu (and Hao) in the 13th year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (1808). It is divided into Boudoir Music, Leisure, Rough Sorrow and Lang's Travel Notes (the last two chapters of Zhongshan Calendar and Health Preservation are suspected to be pseudographs).
These four records are intertwined. Although all records and narratives are daily chores, they are honest and sincere. They are not shy at all, nor pedantic. They are just witty and downplayed. Their reading is like a breeze, with a strong flavor of life and humanistic feelings.