The four extant records are "Wedded Bliss", "The Little Pleasures of Life", "Sorrow", and "The Joys of Travel".

Yang Yin, the brother-in-law of the prominent writer Wang Tao, found the incomplete manuscript of the work at a stall selling second-hand books.

He gave the four parts to Wang Tao, who was in charge of the Shanghai newspaper Shen Bao.

According to Sanders, this choice allowed Shen Fu to "slip readily into a poetic lyrical mode," although he is also able to address topics as diverse as "gardening, finance, social roles of women, tourism, literary criticism, prostitution, class relations, and family dynamics.

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