‘Autumn Winds Stir Mundane Musings’ — Lao Shu’s Farewell to the Fall of 2026

The Other China

秋風拂塵夢，落葉滿空山

相邀出城去，一路卻無言。
秋風拂塵夢，落葉滿空山。

丙午秋深，與友同游西山秋風在耳，遍地紅黃，畫以記之。
老樹隨手造一紙，略狀其行。

We made a date to leave the city,
didn’t exchange a word on the way out:
Autumn winds stirred our mundane musings,
fallen leaves greeting us in those empty mountains.

— in the depths of the autumn during the Bingwu Year of the Horse [2026], a few of us gave ourselves up to the soughing wind at the Western Hills [outside Beijing]. There were daubs of crimson and gold everywhere, so I dashed off this painting as a simple record of the trip. Lao Shu

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The autumn is a time of late bounty, seasonal change, lingering beauty and finality. In 2026, China Heritage has spent the season in the company of the Beijing artist Lao Shu 老樹. See:

This is the final chapter in our autumnal cycle of Lao Shu’s work. For ‘Lao Shu’s Summer’, see the end of this chapter.

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Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.

For more work by Lao Shu in China Heritage, see The Other China and Intersecting with Eternity. For his latest art work (and merch), see Lao Shu Paintings 老樹畫畫 online at NetEase 網易.

— Geremie R. Barmé,
Editor, China Heritage
7 November 2026

At the end of Frost Descends and
on the eve of Winter Established
霜降立冬交接之際

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Note: See Lao Shu on Winter Established 立冬:

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It’s Getting Colder
Time to Wear More

Paintings and poems by Lao Shu

translated by Geremie R. Barmé

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倏忽已秋深，一歲過大半。
時光似流水，落葉如花亂。
下班回到家，吃碗方便面。
明天那些事，今日不惦念。

Late autumn has arrived all at once,
it means that the year’s long half done.
Time itself is moving relentlessly onwards,
the falling leaves are like a rain of petals.
Arriving home after a busy day at work,
I chow down on some instant noodles.
As for whatever awaits me tomorrow
for now that doesn’t weigh on my mind.

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After dinner I crawled straight into bed:
the heating’s not on yet, so it’s pretty chilly.
I lay there thinking about the new day’s tasks
while outside the wind was whipping up a gale.

— it’s late autumn now in the Yisi Year of the Snake [2025]. Recorded by Lao Shu

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秋雨下數日，天氣轉清涼。
小園頗岑寂，落葉紅與黃。
繁華將去矣，睹物多感傷。
感傷又如何？紅塵接著忙。

The autumn rains have gone on for days
and the temperature has definitely fallen.
This small garden remains as still as ever
red and yellow autumn leaves long fallen.
As the year’s exuberance gives way to this,
everything I see invites a mood of reverie.
But what good does indulgent emotion do?
The mundane realm busies itself as ever.

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收拾夏秋衣裳，準備蟄伏冬藏。
埋頭好好做事，不能成天瞎忙。

Time to put the last seasons’ clothes away
and prepare to nestle, lie low for the winter.
Head down, arse up, I’ll just focus on work;
can’t just let myself fritter the days away.

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今日北風勁吹，天氣忽然變冷。
諸位多加衣裳，減少外出活動。

乙巳，老樹

Today there’s a cruel wind blowing from the north
and with it the temperature has suddenly dropped.
I suggest that you all put on more clothes
and stay indoors as much as you can.

— Lao Shu, Yisi Year of the Snake [2025]

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一世無盡繁花，終了都會凋謝。
一陣秋風吹起，零落黃葉紅葉。

丙午秋風裡，老樹

No matter how splendiferous things are,
in the end everything will fade and fall.
With each new gust of autumnal wind
leaves, russet and golden, are scattered.

— Lao Shu, painted during the autumn winds of the Bingwu Year of the Horse [2026]

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Source:

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風

李嶠

解落三秋葉，能開二月花。
過江千尺浪，入竹萬竿斜。

The Wind

Li Qiao

It snaps the leaves of late autumn fall,
It can open the flowers of the second month.
It passes the river, waves a thousand feet high,
It enters the bamboo, ten thousand stalks slant.

— trans. Stephen Owen (d. 1 May 2026)

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Chapters in Lao Shu’s Summer 2026