會員專享How to Live in Rhythm with Time and Nature | The Chinese Wisdom Behind Lì Qiū

How should we live when the world around us is constantly changing?

In traditional Chinese thought, human life was never understood as separate from time and nature. The movements of Heaven and Earth, the changing seasons, and the rhythms of the natural world provided a framework for understanding when to act, when to gather, and when to adjust our way of living.

In this member lesson, we explore this idea through Lì Qiū (立秋), the Beginning of Autumn.

We begin with the traditional concept of 觀象授時 (guān xiàng shòu shí)—observing celestial and natural phenomena in order to understand time and establish the rhythms of human life. From this perspective, time is more than something measured by clocks and calendars: it reflects changes in the relationship between Heaven, Earth, and human beings.

Through Lì Qiū, we then examine how these ideas entered everyday life—from the three traditional seasonal signs of early autumn to customs such as 啃秋 (kěn qiū), 貼秋膘 (tiē qiū biāo), and 曬秋 (shài qiū).

Autumn also carries a deeper meaning: gathering what has grown, appreciating what has been accomplished, and learning what should be released.

The lesson concludes with the Song dynasty poem 《立秋》 by Liu Han (劉翰) and an introduction to 文讀 (wén dú), a traditional scholar-style way of reading and chanting Classical Chinese poetry.

Rather than treating Lì Qiū simply as a date on the traditional calendar, this lesson uses it to explore a larger question: What does it mean to organize human life according to the rhythms of time and nature?

Chapters
00:00 Lì Qiū and the Rhythm of Human Life
01:28 Observing Heaven and Understanding Time
19:31 Reading the Signs of Seasonal Change
27:32 Bringing Seasonal Rhythm into Everyday Life
40:01 Autumn, Letting Go, and Classical Poetry