Lao Shu at Summer’s End

The Other China

處暑

 

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.

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In this, the latest addition to a China Heritage series on the northern summer of 2026, we join Lao Shu once more as he farewells the summer heat with a selection of paintings and bons mots related to autumn. The Chinese rubric of this chapter is 處暑 chù shǔ, ‘end of summer heat’, a period in the traditional lunisolar calendar 二十四節氣 that, in 2026, lasted from the 23rd of August to the 8th of September. It was preceded by 立秋 lì qiū, ‘approach of autumn’, 7 to 23 August.

‘Lao Shu at Summer’s End’ forms a pair with ‘Lao Shu’s Autumnal Wistfulness’.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
31 August 2026

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Chapters in Lao Shu’s Summer 2026

Summer’s Done For

paintings, poems and prose by Lao Shu

translated by Geremie R. Barmé

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晚來有月升起，初覺夜風微涼。
一湖秋水寂寂，無邊蒹葭蒼蒼。

老樹

In the lengthening dark the moon rises.
Feel, too, the chill of an evening wind.
Hushed waters of the autumnal lake offer
a boundless vista of verdant reeds and rushes.

— Lao Shu

Note: The expression 蒹葭蒼蒼 jiān jiā cāngcāng comes from ‘The Rushes’, an ode in the Winds of Qin section of the classic Book of Poetry《詩經．秦風．蒹葭》. In James Legge’s translation, the stanza reads:

蒹葭蒼蒼、
白露為霜。
所謂伊人、
在水一方。
遡洄從之、
道阻且長。
遡遊從之、
宛在水中央。

The reeds and rushes are deeply green,
And the white dew is turned into hoarfrost.
The man of whom I think,
Is somewhere about the water.
I go up the stream in quest of him,
But the way is difficult and long.
I go down the stream in quest of him,
And lo! he is right in the midst of the water.

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今日有點小驚訝，天氣好得不像話。
幾塊雲彩飄啊飄，涼風直吹褲襠下。
遠山看得挺清楚，西瓜冰棍兒都掉價。
莫非秋天真來了？準備換裝穿大褂。

老樹

Caught off guard, a little surprised today
— it’s because the weather’s been so crazy good.
A few clouds scud by leisurely overhead,
while a cool breeze swirls around my privates.
The distant hills can be seen, crystal clear now,
the cost of watermelon popsicles is also dropping.
Does this really mean that the autumn is here?
Better get ready to put on a warmer gown.

— Lao Shu

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The autumn breeze is cooling things down,
the leaves are gradually turning, too.
An ideal time to read for pleasure at home,
let everyone else go busy themselves.

Early autumn, Yiwei Year of the Goat [2015].
The summer heat is gone and in the cool I lock myself away
to enjoy rereading some [15th-century] Ming-dynasty literati.

— Lao Shu

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昨日雲雨今日收，獨在山前說閒愁。
雖說風吹葉未落，一派天氣盡如秋。

壬寅，老樹

The winds and rain of yesterday have dispersed today.
and here I face the hills, indulging solitary feelings.
There might be wind, but the leaves have yet to fall.
Still, everything hints at the desolation of autumn.

— Lao Shu, Renyin Year of the Tiger

Note: The last line of Lao Shu’s composition, 一派天氣盡如秋, comes from ‘Autumn Thoughts’ 秋思, a poem by the Song-dynasty writer Lu You 陸游:

利慾驅人萬火牛，江湖浪跡一沙鷗。
日長似歲閒方覺，事大如天醉亦休。
砧杵敲殘深巷月，井梧搖落故園秋。
欲舒老眼無高處，安得元龍百尺樓。

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秋風乍起兮，
微有涼意。
作思考狀兮，
靜處一地。
年過半百兮，
胡亂折騰。
得失榮辱兮，
全特麼狗屁！

老樹

A sudden autumn gust, just
a hint of what’s to come.
I play the thinker, alone
in some quiet spot.
Half a century it’s been,
frenzied, wasteful industry.
Fame, fortune and the rest,
the lot just so much nonsense.

— Lao Shu

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秋來多嘉氣，江山自清明。
辭職林下住，誰可與同行？

丙申秋風起矣
老樹有此一想記之

Autumn has much to recommend it:
Hills and rivers positively glisten.
Quit work to live in a forest keep,
will any join this leg of the journey?

— a thought that occurred when the autumn winds hit in the
Bingshen Year of the Monkey [2016], so I made this record

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