Reinterpreting the Qing Literati’s Garden Aesthetics in Six Records of a Floating Life

Abstract

 Centering on the garden-centered episodes in Shen Fu’s Six Records of a Floating Life , this paper reconstructs the author’s aesthetic experience through two interpretive lenses—“quiet elegance” (youya) and “mind wandering” (shenyou). “Quiet elegance” is conceived as the fusion of nature’s secluded depth and the literatus’s refined temperament, aligning with the Chinese aesthetic tradition of “purifying the mind and contemplating in stillness,” whereby the subject attains inner freedom through silent observation. “Mind wandering,” by contrast, transcends sensory perambulation; through the free play of imagination, miniature potted landscapes and vast natural sceneries intertextually collapse into one another, achieving a spiritual leap toward the “oblivion of both self and things.” By critically examining Shen Fu’s descriptions of Houshan, Huqiu, and the Lion Grove Garden, and by offering close readings of his bonsai principle “small scenes enter painting, grand scenes enter the spirit,” the study reveals how Shen Fu, taking Ni Zan’s ethereal style as his paradigm, fashions livable and ramble-worthy poetic spaces amid dwellings, potted curios, and travel itineraries. It argues that Shen Fu’s garden experience exemplifies what Kant terms the “free delight in natural beauty,” thereby opening a fresh interpretive path for understanding the everyday aesthetics of Qing-dynasty literati.