Frost's Descent (shuang jiang) solar term arrives, and autumn deepens. Persimmons turn from green to orange on the branches, hanging heavy and bright, glowing with the warmest hues of the season. Soft and sweet when ripe, these fruits bring a quiet joy of harvest to everyday life.
Legend has it that Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-98), founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), once survived on persimmons as a boy. Years later, after ascending the throne, he is said to have bestowed upon the persimmon tree the title "Marquis of Frost-Defiance". In Chinese, shi, the word for persimmon, is a homophone of a word meaning "things" or "matters". The fruit has thus come to symbolize the wish that all things go smoothly, captured in the auspicious phrase "May all things go as you wish."
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