聚朋友
The Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Month of the lunar calendar, a day that in 2026 — the Bingwu Year of the Horse 丙午馬年 — falls on the 25th of September, marks the Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節. A major three-day public holiday in the People’s Republic since 2008, the Mid Autumn Festival is also known as 團圓節, the Festival of Reunions and, internationally, as Mooncake Festival. It is a celebration of unity, togetherness, familial harmony and even conjugal felicity. Reunions were so rare and hard won in both China’s dynastic and modern eras that it is hardly surprising that they are marked so frequently in the calendar and commemorated in a myriad of ways.
Over the years, China Heritage has celebrated Mid Autumn with poems and paintings. In 2023, we marked the festival with Lone Hill in Moonlight 孤山夜月 by Li Liufang (李流芳, 1575-1629); in 2024, we added two poems and two further selections from Zhong Shuhe’s The Tower of Reading to our literary festivities; and, in Mid Autumn Festival 2025, we included a short note by Gong Wei 龔煒, a Qing-era essayist who wrote:
Tonight is Mid Autumn again. Time has eroded whatever health I enjoyed and my best years have been spent in idleness. It’s a state of affairs that may well anger those with even the slightest ambition, but since I have never had any lofty hopes, I don’t feel particularly frustrated by my enfeebled state. I even luxuriate in it.
But of all evenings, tonight it is raining and the full moon is hidden behind clouds. There’s scant evidence of the delights of autumn and I can only hear the drip-drip-drip of water from the eves.
How many Mid Autumn festivals does one get to enjoy in a lifetime? This damnable weather means that this night won’t count.
今夕是中秋節矣。病侵強歲。閒過清時。功名之士。所為短氣。不佞緣以藏拙。亦自不惡。但檐溜泠泠。月光隱翳。絕無佳景。一生不知幾度此節。似此便可扣除。
In September 2026, Gong Wei’s sentiment resonates since, while people in the norther hemisphere celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival, New Zealand was experiencing an ‘arctic blast’ in mid spring: wind, rain, near-zero temperatures, as well as sullen beclouded skies.
The rubric of this chapter in The Other China is 聚朋友 jú péngyǒu, ‘when friends get together’ and it is another chapter in a miniseries devoted to Lao Shu’s autumn. See also:
- Lao Shu’s Autumnal Wistfulness, 1 September 2026
- Lao Shu’s Cornucopia, 3 September 2026
- Lao Shu and the Autumnal Equinox of 2026, 23 September 2026
As well as:
For more essays on the history and culture of Chinese seasons, see New Sinology Jottings 後漢學劄記.
— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
Mid Autumn, 25 September 2026
丙午馬年八月十五中秋
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Here we are, Mid Autumn has come around again and yet again they are flogging Moon Cakes. The packaging is ridiculously extravagant; it’s as though they’ve boxed up antiques or something. Even though they schlep them hither and yon to give away as presents, very few people actually eat these things. Every home ends up with a pile of them and they just sit there until they go all hard and mouldy.
— Lao Shu, the summer of the Xinmao Year of the Rabbit [2011]
廣州朋友來，要吃涮羊肉。
拉他跑到東來順，讓他涮個夠。
兩碟芝麻醬，一碗辣椒油。
蔥末香菜韭菜花，涼菜花生豆。
兩瓶二鍋頭，喝到十點後。
朋友說話舌頭硬，扶他趕緊走。
老樹
A friend visiting from Guangzhou really wanted hotpot
and I took him to Donglaishun so he could eat his fill:
two bowls of sesame paste and another one of chilli oil,
then shallots, coriander, garlic flowers, cold dishes, peanuts ….
We had ourselves two bottles of Erguotou and drank ’til after ten.
By then he had une gueule de bois and I really had to get him home.
— Lao Shu
***
朋友又約吃飯，說得心癢嘴饞。
面對減肥計劃，感覺實在為難。
唉！！！
— 老樹
Another invite for a meal and very thought makes my mouth water:
but I feel pretty conflicted as I confront my weight-loss plan.
Damn it!
— Lao Shu
***
The autumnal winds are blowing,
the temperature keeps dropping.
But there’s still lots of stuff to do.
I tell myself to get a grip and calm down:
there’s more than time enough ahead.
— Lao Shu
***
窗外又秋風。
朋友閒話小樓中。
一一列數英雄事，
匆匆。
不過幾度夕陽紅。
應世須從容。
信步關山千萬重。
你再折騰又怎樣？
成空。
江河不廢還向東。
老樹
Autumn winds outside
Chatting with a friend in here
—— talking ’bout heroes past,
a cavalcade of fleeting stories
like a blaze in the west-waning day,
we face the world without a care.
Assured steps ever advancing,
So what if you can muddle through?
It’s all for naught:
the river still flows onward, ever east.
— Lao Shu
Note: Lao Shu’s doggerel verse brings to mind Immortal at the River 臨江仙·滾滾長江東逝水 by Yang Shen 楊慎:
滾滾長江東逝水，浪花淘盡英雄。
是非成敗轉頭空。
青山依舊在，幾度夕陽紅。
白髮漁樵江渚上，慣看秋月春風。
一壺濁酒喜相逢。
古今多少事，都付笑談中。
On and on the Great River rolls, bending east away.
Of proud and gallant heroes its white-tops leave no trace,
As right and wrong, pride and fall turn all at once unreal.
Yet ever the green hills stay
To blaze in the west-waning day.
Fishers and woodsmen comb the river isles.
White-crowned, they’ve seen enough of spring and autumn tide
To make good company over the wine jar,
Where many a famed event
Provides their merriment.
— translated by Moss Roberts, quoted in Tired of Winning Yet, China?
***
朋友相遇總是有緣，
坐下吃酒不談掙錢。
甲午初秋老樹製造畫
Fate is at work when friends get to meet up,
we sit down, drink up, don’t talk about money.
— Lao Shu, early autumn, Jiawu Year of the Horse [2014]
***
朋友說要來耍，吃酒沒有佳餚。
後園拔棵白菜，燉上豬肉粉條。
老樹
A friend said they’re coming over to hang out.
I had booze at home but nothing good to eat.
So I dug up a cabbage in the patch out back,
put it on the boil with pork and rice noodles.
— Lao Shu
Note: 白菜豬肉燉粉條 — braised pork, napa cabbage and glass noodles — is a classic dish in northeastern Chinese cuisine.
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Source:
- 老樹，廣州朋友來，要吃涮羊肉，《老樹畫畫》，2026年9月11日，translated by Geremie R. Barmé
***
With the arrival of spring, flowers blossom,
in autumn, fruits fall of their own accord.
Why then such unwarranted anxiety?
— because I too have come this way.
— the height of spring, Jihai Year of the Pig
***
Source:
- 老樹 ，宜格物，《老樹日曆》 ，2026年 9月11日，trans. GRB
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