PREFACE

Yün, I think, is one of the loveliest women in Chinese literature.She is not the most beautiful, for the author, her husband, does not make that claim, and yet who can deny that she is the loveliest? She is just one of those charming women one sometimes sees in the homes of one’s friends, so happy with their husbands that one cannot fall in love with them. One is glad merely to know that such a woman exists in the world and to know her as a friend’s wife, to be accepted in her household, to be able to come uninvited to her home for lunch, or to have her put a blanket around one’s legs when one falls asleep while she is discussing painting and literature and cucumbers in her womanish manner with her husband. I dare say there are a number of such women in every generation, except that in Yün I seem to feel the qualities of a cultivated and gentle wife combined to a greater degree of perfection than falls within our common experience. For who would not like to go out secretly with her against her parents’ wish to the Taihu Lake and see her elated at the sight of the wide expanse of water, or watch the moon with her by the Bridge of Ten Thousand Years? And who would not like to go with her, if she were living in England, and visit the British Museum,where she would see the medieval illuminated manuscripts with tears of delight? Therefore, when I say that she is one of the loveliest women in Chinese literature and Chinese history—for she was a real person—I do not think I have exaggerated.

Did Shen Fu, her husband, perhaps idealize her? I hardly think so.The reader will be convinced of this when he reads the story itself. He made no effort to whitewash her or himself. In him, too, lived the spirit of truth and beauty and the genius for resignation and contentment so characteristic of Chinese culture. I cannot help wondering what this commonplace scholar must have been like to inspire such a pure and loyal love in his wife, and to be able to appreciate it so much as to write for us one of the tenderest accounts of wedded love we have ever come across in literature. Peace be to his soul! His ancestral tomb is on the Hill of Good Fortune and Longevity in the neighbourhood of Soochow, and if we are lucky, we may still be able to find it. I do not think it would be wrong to prepare some incense and fruits and say some prayers on our knees to these two sweet souls. If I were there, I would whistle the melodies of Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane,” sad as death, yet smiling,or perhaps Massenet’s “Melodie,” tender and resigned and beautiful and purged of all exciting passions. For in the presence of these souls,one’s spirit also becomes humble, not before the great, but before the small, things of life, for I truly believe that a humble life happily lived is the most beautiful thing in the universe. Inevitably, while reading and re-reading and going over this little booklet, my thoughts are led to the question of happiness. For those who do not know it,，happiness is a problem, and for those who do know it, happiness is a mystery.The reading of Shen Fu’s story gives one this sense of the mystery of happiness, which transcends all bodily sorrows and actual hardships—similar, I think, to the happiness of an innocent man condemned to a life-long sentence with the consciousness of having done no wrong,the same happiness that is so subtly depicted for us in Tolstoy’s“Resurrection,” in which the spirit conquers the body. For this reason,I think the life of this couple is one of the saddest and yet at the same time “gayest” lives, the type of gaiety that bears sorrow so well.

The Chinese title for this book is “Fousheng Liuchi” or “Six Chapters of a Floating Life,” of which only four remain.(The reference is to a passage in Li Po’s poem, “Our floating life is like a dream; how often can one enjoy oneself?”)In form, it is unique, an autobiographical story mixed with observations and comments on the art of living, the little pleasures of life, some vivid sketches of scenery and literary and art criticism. The extant version was first published in 1877 by Yang Yinch’üan, who picked it up from a secondhand bookstore, with the two last chapters missing. According to the author’s own testimony, he was born in 1763, and the fourth chapter could not have been written before 1808. A brother-in-law of Yang’s and a well-known scholar, by the name of Wang T’ao, had seen the book in his childhood, so that it is likely that the book was known in the neighbourhood of Soochow in the second or third decade of the nineteenth century. From Kuan Yi-ngo’s poems and from the known headings of the last chapters, we know that the Fifth Chapter recorded his experiences in Formosa, while the Sixth Chapter contained the author’s reflections on the way of life. I have the fond hope that some complete copy of the book is still lying somewhere in some private collections or secondhand shops of Soochow, and if we are lucky, it is not altogether impossible that we may discover it still.

LIN YUTANG

Shanghai,

May 24,1935.

《浮生六记》译者序

芸，我想，是中国文学中最可爱的女人。她并非最美丽。因为这书的作者，她的丈夫，并没有这样推崇，但是谁能否认她是一个最可爱的女人？她只是在我们朋友家中有时遇见的有风韵丽人，因与其夫伉偭情笃，令人尽绝倾慕之念。我们只觉得世上有这样的女人是一件可喜的事，只愿认她是朋友之妻，可以出入其家，可以不邀自来和她夫妇吃中饭，或者当她与她丈夫促膝畅谈书画文学乳腐卤瓜之时，你打瞌睡，她可以来放一条毛毡把你的脚腿盖上。也许古今各代都有这种女人，不过在芸身上，我们似乎看见这样贤达的美德特别齐全，一生中不可多得。你想谁不愿意和她夫妇，背着翁姑，偷往太湖，看她观玩洋洋万顷的湖水，而叹天地之宽，或者同她到万年桥去赏月？而且假使她生在英国，谁不愿意陪她去参观伦敦博物院，看她狂喜坠泪玩摩中世纪的彩金抄本？因此，我说她是中国文学历史上（因为确有其人）一个最可爱的女人，并非故甚其辞。

她的一生，“事如春梦了无痕”，如东坡所云。要不是这书得偶然保存，我们今日还不知有这样一个女人生在世上，饱尝过闺房之乐与坎坷之愁。我现在把她的故事翻译出来，不过因为这故事应该叫世界知道；一方面以流传她的芳名，又一方面，因为我在这两位无猜的夫妇的简朴的生活中，看他们追求美丽，看他们穷困潦倒，遭不如意事的磨折，受狡佞小人的欺负，同时一意求享浮生半日闲的清福，却又怕遭神明的忌——在这故事中，我仿佛看到中国处世哲学的精华，在两位恰巧成为夫妇的生平上表现出来。两位平常的雅人，在世上并没有特殊的建树，只是欣爱宇宙间的良辰美景，山林泉石，同几位知心友过他们恬淡自适的生活——蹭蹬不遂，而仍不改其乐。他们太驯良了, 所以不会成功，因为他们两位胸怀旷达，淡泊名利，与世无争，而他们的遭父母放逐，也不能算他们的错，反而值得我们的同情。这悲剧之原因，不过因为芸知书识字，因为她太爱美至于不懂得爱美有什么罪过。因她是识字的媳妇，所以她得替她的婆婆写信给在外想要娶妾的公公，而且她见了一位歌伎简直发痴，暗中替她的丈夫撮合娶为簉室，后来为强者所夺，因而生起大病。在这地方，我们看见她的爱美的天性与这现实的冲突——一种根本的，虽然是出于天真的冲突。这冲突在她于神诞之夜，化扮男装，赴会观“花照”，也可看出。—个女人打扮男装或是倾心于一个歌伎是不道德吗？如果是，她全不晓得。她只思慕要看见，要知道，人生世上的美丽景物，那些中国古代守礼的妇人向来所看不到的景物。也是由于这艺术上本无罪而道德上犯礼的衷怀，使她想要游遍天下名山——那些年轻守礼妇女不便访游而她愿意留待“鬂斑”之时去访游的名山。但是这些山她没看到，因为她已经看见一位风流蕴藉的歌伎，而这已十分犯礼，足使她的公公认为她是情痴少妇，把她驱出家庭，而她从此半生须颠倒于穷困之中，没有清闲也没有钱可以享游山之乐了。

是否沈复，她的丈夫，把她描写过实？我觉得不然。读者读本书后必与我同意。他不曾存意粉饰芸或他自己的缺点。我们看见这书的作者自身也表示那种爱美爱真的精神，和那中国文化最特色的知足常乐恬淡自适的天性。我不免暗想，这位平常的寒士是怎样一个人，能引起他太太这样纯洁的爱，而且能不负此爱，把它写成古今中外文学中最温柔细腻闺房之乐的记载。三白，三白，魂无恙否？他的祖坟在苏州郊外福寿山；倘使我们有幸，或者尚可找到。果能如愿，我想备点香花鲜果，供奉跪拜祷祝于这两位清魂之前，也没什么罪过。在他们坟前，我要低吟Maurice Ravel 的 Pavane ，哀思凄楚，缠绵悱恻，而归于和美静娴，或是长啸 Massenet的 Melodie ，如怨如慕，如泣如诉，悠扬而不流于激越。因为在他们之前，我们的心气也谦和了，不是对伟大者，是对卑弱者，起谦恭畏敬，因为我相信淳朴恬退自甘的生活，如芸所说“布衣菜饭，可乐终身”的生活，是宇宙间最美丽的东两。在我翻阅重读这本小册之时，每每不期然而然想到这安乐的问题。在未得安乐的人，求之而不可得，在已得安乐之人，又不知其来之所自。读了沈复的书每使我感到这安乐的奥妙，远超乎尘俗之压迫与人身之痛苦——这安乐，我想，很像一个无罪下狱的人心地之泰然，也就是托尔斯泰在《复活》所微妙表出的一种。是心灵已战胜肉身了。因为这个缘故，我想这对伉俩的生活是最悲惨而同时是最活泼快乐的生活——那种善处忧患的活泼快乐。

这本书的原名是《浮生六记》（英译 Six Chapters of a Floating Life ），其中只有四记。（典出李白“浮生若梦，为欢几何？”之句。）其体裁特别，以一自传的故事，兼谈生活艺术、闲情逸趣、山水景色、文评艺评等。现存的四记本系杨引传在冷摊上所发现，于一八七七年首先刊行。依书中自述，作者生于一七六三年，而第四记之写作必在一八〇八年之后。杨的妹婿王韬（弢园），颇具文名，曾于幼时看见这书，所以这书在一八零十至一八三十年间当流行于姑苏。由管贻萼的诗及现存回目，我们知道第五章是记他在台湾的经历，而第六章是记作者对养生之道的感想。我在猜想，在苏州家藏或旧书铺一定还有一本全本，倘然有这福分，或可给我们发现。

民国二十四年五月廿四日龙溪林语堂序于上海

注：本序英文原登《天下月刊》创刊号，译文登《人间世》第40期，1935年11月20曰。