Autumn Fragrance Yellow
A light olive yellow like mid-autumn osmanthus, elegant and understated
#D9B611rgb(217, 182, 17)hsl(50, 85%, 46%)hsv(50, 92%, 85%)cmyk(0%, 16%, 92%, 15%)#D9B611FFrgba(217, 182, 17, 1)hsla(50, 85%, 46%, 1)oklch(88.3%, 0.161, 102)lch(86.8%, 69.7, 104)🎨 Color Palettes
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💡 Use Cases
New Chinese-Style Home
An Autumn Fragrance sofa paired with a black walnut coffee table, with a floor lamp of Xuan paper beside it, transforms the living room into a literati study suitable for playing the zither and sipping tea.
Incense Ceremony Utensils
An Autumn Fragrance brocade sachet filled with osmanthus and white sandalwood can scent a wardrobe for a season. When the cabinet door is opened, the color and the fragrance reach the senses simultaneously.
Mid-Autumn Gift Boxes
High-end mooncake gift boxes use Autumn Fragrance colored mounting paper with gold-stamped verses. Upon delivery, the recipient senses, before even opening it, that this wasn't a casual purchase, but a thoughtful choice.
Garden Restoration
Restorers of ancient architecture mix Autumn Fragrance plaster according to recipes from the 'Yuan Ye' (The Craft of Gardens). Applied to the white walls of the Lingering Garden, the new and old are almost indistinguishable.
📜 Origin & History
'Autumn Fragrance' is a highly literary color name in the traditional Chinese palette. The Ming Dynasty's 'Tiangong Kaiwu' (Exploitation of the Works of Nature) records that dyeing this color required layering dyes from sophora flower buds and amur cork tree bark, then adding a trace of indigo to suppress any 'fiery' undertones, ultimately yielding a light olive yellow reminiscent of the subtle fragrance of August's osmanthus. The name itself is already a line of poetry—the fragrance arrives before the color is even seen.
In 'Dream of the Red Chamber,' Shi Xiangyun makes an entrance wearing an Autumn Fragrance yellow robe embroidered with coiled gold dragons. Cao Xueqin used this color to imply that although she was a noble daughter, she possessed a heroic and magnanimous spirit. In the Qing Dynasty, Autumn Fragrance was not an official color, but it was a refined shade used only by established, wealthy families like the Jia household—more understated than bright yellow, more elegant than earthy yellow.
The study room aesthetics of Ming and Qing literati esteemed Autumn Fragrance as a 'transcendent' product. Window paper for the study was dyed this color. Afternoon sunlight filtering through the Autumn Fragrance window paper onto the rice paper was tempered to a jade-like warmth. Wen Zhenheng, in his 'Treatise on Superfluous Things' (Zhang Wu Zhi), stressed that study window paper must never be pure white; only Autumn Fragrance or light blue could nurture the eyes.
The latticed windows and leaky walls of Suzhou gardens heavily utilized Autumn Fragrance paint. The walls of the Double Corridor in the Humble Administrator's Garden, soaked by autumn rain, show patches of varying shades of Autumn Fragrance. Together with the Taihu rocks and plantain leaves at the base, they form the ideal garden chromatics envisioned by the Chinese literati. To this day, restorers still prepare Autumn Fragrance plaster following ancient recipes for wall repairs.
In modern Chinese-style design, Autumn Fragrance is undergoing a revival. New Chinese furniture brands have launched leather sofas in Autumn Fragrance, paired with walnut frames. The Forbidden City's cultural creative arm has set Autumn Fragrance as the main color for its 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains' series. Young consumers, through phone cases and notebooks, have brought this once-aloof literati color into the subway and the office.