Shen Fu - Family

Family

Chen Yun was Shen Fu’s cousin and she was ten months elder than Shen Fu. They had known each other since childhood. Chen Yun was very clever and practical, she was good at embroidery while she could also write beautiful poems. When she was young, her father taught her “Pipa Xing” (a long poem written by Bai Juyi) word by word,and she could recite it at once. However, she lost her father and lived with her mother and a young brother when she was only four. Though they lived a hard life, Chen Yun try to support her family with her practical hands. She learnt how to read and write while doing workers. When Shen Fu followed his mother to visit her, he was attracted by his cousin’s gentleness and beauty. Shen Fu told her mother he’d like to marry Chen Yun and she agreed. They were engaged at 13. One day, Shen Fu was hungry after attending a wedding of another cousin’s wedding. He didn’t like the dinner the maid gave him. Then Chen Yun asked him to come to her room with some porridge and light dishes. But Chen Yun’s brother came in and played jokes with them. Chen Yun was shy and avoided to see Shen Fu until they got married. They loved each other very much. Chen Yun knew flower arrangement very well and she always made their study warm and fragrent. This made her husband see her as a soulmate since they shared the same taste. There were also some interesting things in their life. Since women could not go out and be seen in public in ancient times, Chen Yun couldn’t enjoy life outside. Shen Fu arrived at the idea of dressing Chen Yun as a man and it worked. Chen Yun was one of the few women who could experience much at that time. They had a couple of seals with " Being couple generation after generation " and prayed they could be together all lifelong. Sadly she was lose to her mother-in-law ( who was also her aunt) and was forced to move out of the house with her husband. Their life was too poor to get good health care. Later, Chen Yun died in an early age and left her loving husband.