Six Records of a Floating Life (Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, 浮生六記 pinyin: Fú Shēng Liù Jì) is an autobiographical novel by Shen Fu

Shen Fu

Shen Fu was a Chinese writer.- life:"Shen Fu"or"Shen Sanbai".He was born in Changzhou.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...

 (沈復, 1763 - 1825) who lived in Changzhou (now known as Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...

) during the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

. Only four of its six parts survive.

Yang Yin, Wang Tao's brother-in-law, found the incomplete version of the work. He gave the four parts to Wang Tao, who was in charge of Shen Bao

Shen Bao

Shen Bao, formerly transliterated as Shun Pao or Shen-pao , known in English as Shanghai News, was a newspaper published from April 30, 1872 to May 27, 1949 in Shanghai, China...

 at that time, to publish in letterpress firstly in 1877. The Fourth Record was written in 1808, so the book was believed to be finished after that. Based on the index, we can tell that the Fifth Record is about A History of Life at Chungshan (the experience in Taiwan) and the Sixth is about The Way of Living. The Fifth and Sixth parts claimed to have been found were declared to be fraudulent by scholars. The word "Floating Life" comes from a poem of Tang poet Li Bai

Li Bai

Li Bai , also known in the West by various other transliterations, especially Li Po, was a major Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period. He has been regarded as one of the greatest poets in China's Tang period, which is often called China's "golden age" of poetry. Around a thousand existing...

( ... ... Floating life just like a dream, how much fun can we have?).

Versions in different languages

English

• Six Chapters of a Floating Life; 林语堂译, 1936
• CHAPTERS FROM A FLOATING LIFE The Autobiography of a Chinese Artist. tr. Black, Shirley M. Oxford University Press, 1960
• Six Records of a Floating Life： Shen Fu; Pratt, Leonard; Su-Hui, Chiang. New York: Viking Pr, 1983; ISBN 0140444297

German

• Shen Fu:Sechs Aufzeichnungen über ein unstetes Leben.Müller & Kiepenheuer, 1989 ISBN 3783380464

French

• Shen Fu: Six secrets au fil inconstant des jours;Bruxelles,Éditions F.Larcier,Traduit du chinois par P. Ryckmans. 1966

Danish

• Kapitler af et flygtigt liv. SHEN FU. Omstag， 1986

Italian

• Sei racconti di vita irreale , 1955

Korean

• 부생 육기 :심 복 자서전 , 1979

Spanish

• Relatos de una vida sin rumbo , 1985

Dutch

• Verslagen van een vlietend leven : biografie van een liefde , 1989

Hebrew

• החיים הסחופים

Swedish

• Pilblad i strömmen.En kinesisk konstnärs självbiografi，Shen Fu,1961。

Japanese

• 《浮生六記：うき世のさが》沈復作，佐藤春夫·松枝茂夫譯，東京：岩波書店，1938年9月

Malaysian

• Hidup Bagaikan Mimpi. (Fou Sheng Liu Chi). Riwayat Hidup Sa-orang Pelukis Dan Sasterawan Tionghoa. SHEN FU； DRS LI CHUAN SIU.

Czech

• Šest historií prchavého života , 1944

Russian

• Голыгина К.И. Шесть записок о быстротечности жизни. Пер. с кит., предисл. и коммент. К.И. Голыгиной. М., Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства "Наука", 1979. (Golygina K.I., Moscow, 1979)