Autumn in Peiping
Yu Dafu

Autumn, wherever it is,always has something to recommend itself. In North China, however, it isparticularly limpid, serene and melancholy. To enjoy its atmosphere to the fullin the onetime capital, I have, therefore, made light of travelling a longdistance from Hangzhou to Qingdao, and thence to Peiping.

Thereis of course autumn in the South too, but over there plants wither slowly, theair is moist, the sky pallid, and it is more often rainy than windy. Whilemuddling along all by myself among the urban dwellers of Suzhou, Shanghai,Xiamen, Hong Kong or Guangzhou, I feel nothing but a little chill in the air,without ever relishing to my heart's content the flavour, colour, mood andstyle of the season. Unlike famous flowers which are most attractive when halfopening, good wine which is most tempting when one is half drunk, autumn,however, is best appreciated in its entirety.

Itis more than a decade since I last saw autumn in North. When I am in the South,the arrival of each autumn will put me in mind of Peiping's Tao Ran Ting withits reed catkins, Diao Yu Tai with its shady willow trees, Western Hills withtheir chirping insects, Yu Quan Shan Mountain on a moonlight evening and TanZhe Si with its reverbrating bell. Suppose you put up in a humble rented houseinside the bustling imperial city, you can, on getting up at dawn, sit in yourcourtyard sipping a cup of strong tea, leisurely watch the high azure skies andlisten to pigeons circling overhead. Saunter eastward under locust trees toclosely observe streaks of sunlight filtering through their foliage, or quietlywatch the trumpet-shaped blue flowers of morning glories climbing half way up adilapidated wall, and an intense feeling of autumn will of itself well up insideyou. As to morning glories, I like their blue or white flowers best, darkpurple ones second best, and pink ones third best. It will be most desirable tohave them set off by some tall thin grass planted underneath here and there.

Locusttrees in the North, as a decorative embellishment of nature, also associate uswith autumn. On getting up early in the morning, you will find the groundstrewn all over with flower-like pistils fallen from locust trees. Quiet andsmelless, they feel tiny and soft underfoot. After a street cleaner has donethe sweeping under the shade of the trees, you will discover countless linesleft by his broom in the dust, which look so fine and quiet that somehow afeeling of forlornness will begin to creep up on you. The same depth ofimplication is found in the ancient saying that a single fallen leaf from thewutong tree is more than enough to inform the world of autumn's presence.

Thesporadic feeble chirping of cicadas is especially characteristic of autumn inthe North. Due to the abundance of trees and the low altitude of dwellings inPeiping, cicadas are audible in every nook and cranny of the city. In theSouth, however, one cannot hear them unless in suburbs or hills. Because oftheir ubiquitous shrill noise, these insects in Peiping seem to be living offevery household like crickets or mice.

Asfor autumn rains in the North, they also seem to differ from those in theSouth, being more appealing, more temperate.

Asudden gust of cool wind under the slaty sky, and raindrops will startpitter-pattering. Soon when the rain is over, the clouds begin gradually toroll towards the west and the sun comes out in the blue sky. Some idletownsfolk, wearing lined or unlined clothing made of thick cloth, will come outpipe in mouth and, loitering under a tree by the end of a bridge, exchangeleisurely conversation with acquaintances with a slight touch of regret at thepassing of time:

"Oh,real nice and cool—"

"Sure!Getting cooler with each autumn shower!"

Fruittrees in the North also make a wonderful sight in autumn. Take jujube tree forexample. They grow everywhere—around the corner of a house, at the foot of awall, by the side of a latrine or outside a kitchen door. It is at the heightof autumn that jujubes, shaped like dates or pigeon eggs, make their appearancein a light yellowish-green amongst tiny elliptic leaves. By the time when theyhave turned ruddy and the leaves fallen, the north-westerly wind will begin toreign supreme and make a dusty world of the North. Only at the turn of July andAugust when jujubes, persimmons, grapes are 80-90 percent ripe will the Northhave the best of autumn—the golden days in a year.

Someliterary critics say that Chinese literati, especially poets, are mostlydisposed to be decadent, which accounts for predominance of Chinese workssinging the praises of autumn. Well, the same is true of foreign poets, isn'tit? I haven't read much of foreign poetry and prose, nor do I want to enumerateautumn-related poems and essays in foreign literature. But, if you browsethrough collected works of English, German, French or Italian poets, or variouscountries' anthologies of poetry or prose, you can always come across a greatmany literary pieces eulogizing or lamenting autumn. Long pastoral poems orsongs about the four seasons by renowned poets are mostly distinguished bybeautiful moving lines on autumn. All that goes to show that all live creaturesand sensitive humans alike are prone to the feeling of depth, remoteness,severity and bleakness. Not only poets, even convicts in prison, I suppose,have deep sentiments in autumn in spite of themselves. Autumn treats all humansalike, regardless of nationality, race or class. However, judging from Chineseidiom qiushi (autumn scholar, meaning and aged scholar grieving overfrustrations in his life) and frequent selection in textbooks of Ouyang Xiu'sOn the Autumn Sough and Su Dongpo's On the Red Cliff, Chinese men of lettersseem to be particularly autumn-minded. But, to know the real flavour of autumn,especially China's autumn, one has to visit the North.

Autumnin the South also has its unique features, such as the moon-lit Ershisi Bridgein Yangzhou, the flowing sea tide at the Qiantangjiang River, the mist-shroudedPutuo Mountain and lotuses at the Lizhiwan Bay. But they all lack strong colourand lingering flavour. Southern autumn is to Northern autumn what yellow ricewine is to kaoliang wine, congee to steamed buns, perches to crabs, yellow dogsto camels.

Autumn,I mean Northern autumn, if only it could be made to last forever! I would bemore than willing to keep but one-third of my life-span and have two-thirds ofit bartered for the prolonged stay of the season.