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Liu Han (fl. 1190), aka Liu Wu-tzu, was from Changsha in Hunan province, but little else is known about him. In addition to their calendar of twelve lunar months, the Chinese also divide the year into twenty-four solar periods. Autumn at the Gate (Li-ch’iu) occurs at the end of the first week of August. Most commentators are convinced the jade screen here refers to an elegant, jade-colored silk or paper screen—as it does in the next poem. But why would anyone put up a screen to block the wind at this time of year, when the first cool breeze of autumn is so welcome? It makes more sense to read it as a metaphor for a cloudless (and duckless) sky. Paulownias are planted for their shade. Their huge leaves are a foot or two across, and when they fall at the beginning of autumn, they all fall at once.

Autumn at the Gate

LIU HAN

The quacking is gone the jade screen is empty

my pillow feels cool fanned by the wind

autumn sounds wake me but where are their traces

paulownia leaves cover the steps in the moonlight