沈复 浮生六记

[cecilia.ch]

Has any body read it? Is it true that lately the last two chapters were discovered? Thx!

[rob07]

Fake versions of chapters 5 and 6 have been floating around for decades. However, in 2005 someone found a version of chapter 5 in the ancient city of Pingyao, and it seems like this might be genuine. (If you want to believe everything you read on the internet, apparently it also conclusively proves that the 钓鱼岛 belong to China rather than Japan). I don't think a credible version of chapter 6 has yet been found.

I always found it ironic that the last two chapters were missing because 沈复 leads such a directionless life it seemed somehow appropriate that his story came to a halt without ending properly.

There are a couple of other Qing dynasty classics about failed scholars whose names escape me for the moment, it was a major social issue back then and makes for good reading. Also, there was quite a long discussion of the 鲁迅 story 孔乙己 a couple of months ago on these forums; it is interesting to compare 沈复 and 孔乙己.