In this article, I discuss the treatment of cicadas in classical Chinese poetry, and I analyze how the sense of the seasons associated with cicadas changed over time. The cicada is an insect that sings from summer through to autumn. But in classical Chinese poems the season when the cicada was considered to sing differed from one period to another. For instance, in the poem “Qiyue” 七月（“The Seventh Month”） in the Shijing 詩經 there is mention of “the cicada chirping in the fifth month” （五月鳴蜩）, while in the section on the first month of summer in the “Yueling” 月令 chapter of the Liji 禮記 it is said that “cicadas begin to chirp” （蟬始鳴）, and in the section on the first month of autumn in the same chapter it is stated that “the cicada of the cold chirps” （寒蟬鳴）. Thus, according to these passages, the cicada was considered to sing in both summer and autumn. But in poems postdating the Shijing we do not find any references to the summer cicada in poems prior to the Jin, and they reappear only from the Liu Song onwards. In poems of the Six Dynasties the summer cicada was basically a symbol of the vigorous vitality of summer, while the autumn cicada was an insect that typified the sorrow of autumn. References to the summer cicada again disappear in the early Tang but appear once again in the high Tang. The summer cicada found in poems of the high Tang is an insect presaging the arrival of autumn. But in poems from the mid-Tang onwards both summer and autumn cicadas are mentioned, and thereafter poems in which summer cicadas appear gradually increase. The summer cicada is treated as a symbol of the vitality of summer or as a foretoken of the advent of autumn, and this trend by and large continues into the Song period.