Six Records of a Floating Life (Chapter one: Wedded Bliss 01)

 

    I was born in 1763, under the reign of Ch'ienlung, on the twenty-second day of the eleventh moon. The country was then in the heyday of peace and, moreover, I was born in a scholars' family, living by the side of the Ts'anglang Pavilion in Soochow. So altogether I may say the gods have been unusually kind to me. Su Tungp'o said, "life is like a spring dream which vanishes without a trace." I should be ungrateful to the gods if I did not try to put my life down on record.

    Since the Book of Poems begin with a poem on wedded love, I thought I would begin this book by speaking of my marital relations and then let other matters follow.

    My only regret is that I was not properly educated in childhood, all I know is a simple language and I shall try only to record the real facts and real sentiments. I hope the reader will be kind enough not to scrutinize my grammar, which would be like looking for brilliance in a tarnished mirror.

    I was engaged in my childhood to one Miss Yu, of Chinsha, who died in her eighth year, and eventually I married a girl of the Ch'en clan. Her name is Yun and her literary name Suchen. She was my cousin, being the daughter of my maternal uncle, Hsinyu. Even in her childhood, she was a very clever girl, for while she was learning to speak, sha was taught Po chuyi's poem, The P'i P'a player, and could at once repeat it. Her father died when she was four years old, and in the family there were only her mother (of the Chin clan) and her younger brother K'ehch'ang and herself, being then practically destitute. When Yun grew up and had learnt needlework, she was providing for the family of three, and contrived always to pay K'ehch'ang's tuition fees punctually. One day, she picked up a copy of the poem The Pi Pa Player from a wastebask, and from that, with the help of her memory of the lines, she learnt to read word by word. Between her needlework, she gradually learnt to write poetry. One of her poems contained the two lines: "Touched by autumn, one's figure grows slender; Soaked in frost, the chrysanthemum blooms full."