Red beans grow in the southern lands; in spring, they sprout forth their branches. I urge you, my love, to gather them in abundance—for of all things, these best evoke the longing of love.

This poem was composed during Liu Zongyuan's period of exile in Yongzhou (805–815 AD). In the first year of the Yongzhen reign of Emperor Shunzong of the Tang Dynasty (805), Liu Zongyuan participated in the Yongzhen Reform Movement initiated by the Wang Shuwen faction; however, the reform effort quickly failed, and Liu Zongyuan was demoted to the post of Vice-Prefect of Yongzhou, where he remained in exile for ten years.

From a thousand mountains, birds have ceased their flight; along ten thousand paths, human traces vanish from sight. On a solitary skiff, an old man in a straw cloak and hat fishes alone in the snow-laden, freezing river. — Liu Zongyuan (Tang Dynasty) — *River Snow*

下午好