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After leaving Chengtu in 765, Tu Fu (712–770) traveled down the Yangtze with his family and stopped in Fengchieh. He stayed there for two years as the guest of the prefect and during his second autumn wrote a series of eight poems, four of which appear here. The place where he lived was a few kilometers east of Fengchieh in the town of Paiti, overlooking the western entrance to the first of the Three Gorges. Wuhsia, or Sorceress Gorge, is the second of the three and was named for a mountain that served as a fair-weather beacon for river travelers. Paiti was once the capital of an independent state and also where Liu Pei died while trying to reunite China in the third century. Jade Dew is another name for the solar period known as White Dew that occurs in early September—when the leaves turn red and chrysanthemums bloom. Women used mallets of wood or stone to beat clothes while washing them or to toughen new material.

Autumn Inspiration—I

TU FU

Jade dew wounds a forest of maples

Sorceress Mountain looks bleak in the gorge

waves in the river crash against the sky

clouds in the passes darken the earth

chrysanthemums once more have seen my tears about the past

my boat is still tied to thoughts of my garden

everywhere people are making winter clothes

in Paiti at dusk the mallets beat faster