Shen Fu

Shen Fu (1763–after 1825), courtesy name Sanbai and literary name Meiyi, was a Qing-dynasty writer from Changzhou, Jiangsu (present-day Suzhou). Born into a family of clerks, he never sat for the civil examinations and spent much of his life as a private secretary, selling paintings, and engaging in business, often moving from place to place. He was deeply attached to his wife, Chen Yun, and after her death he wrote the autobiographical prose work Six Records of a Floating Life, which recalls the joys of their married life as well as the hardships of his travels. Its lucid, natural style and genuine feeling have made it one of the representative works of Qing prose, still widely read today. The year of his death is uncertain, and public information about his life remains limited; much of what is known of him comes from this work itself.