Reasons for the Prosperity of Genre Painting in Song Dynasty

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, one of the top ten famous paintings handed down in China, is a genre painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, with a width of 24.8 cm and a length of 528.7 cm. It is colored in silk. This picture scroll is a masterpiece of Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. It belongs to a national treasure and is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing. In the form of a long scroll, the work vividly records the face of urban life in China in the12nd century by using the composition method of scattered perspective.

From The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, we can see several very distinctive artistic features:

First, it is rich in content. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival adopts the method of constantly moving the viewpoint, that is, "scattered perspective" to capture the required scene. From the vast Yuan Ye, the vast rivers, the towering battlements, to the nails and rivets on ships and cars, the small commodities on vendors, and the words on the market, they are all harmoniously organized into a unified whole. There are officials, farmers, businessmen, doctors, monks, Taoist priests, petty officials, women, children, teachers, laborers and so on, as well as donkeys and horses. There are fairs, trading, hanging out, drinking, parties, pushing boats, pulling carts, riding cars, riding horses and so on. There are many shops, hotels, teahouses and dim sum shops in the street, as well as towers, river ports, bridges, cargo ships, government buildings and thatched cottages. There are 1695 people, more than 60 kinds of livestock, more than 20 wooden boats, more than 30 pavilions, and more than 20 sedan chairs. Such rich and colorful contents are rare in ancient paintings of past dynasties. People of all colors engage in various activities, not only with different clothes and facial expressions, but also with various activities, full of dramatic plot conflicts, which make viewers look at the industry with endless aftertaste.

Second, the structure is rigorous, complicated but not chaotic, long but not redundant, and the paragraphs are clear. What is commendable is that such rich and colorful content, prominent theme, echo from beginning to end, the whole volume is seamless. Every figure, scene and detail in the painting are arranged reasonably, and the relationship between the pictures, such as density, simplicity, movement, gathering and dispersion, is handled properly, so as to be complex but not miscellaneous, but not chaotic. It fully shows the painter's profound insight into social life and superb ability to organize and control pictures.

Thirdly, in terms of techniques, the combination of big brushwork and meticulous brushwork is good at choosing vivid and poetic things, scenes and plots with essential characteristics to express. Observe life very carefully and portray every character and prop. Everyone has his own identity, way and plot. Buildings, bridges and other buildings are rigorous in structure and detailed in description. Cars, horses and boats cover everything, so we should be small without losing the whole picture and its potential. For example, the objects on the ship, the way of nailing and riveting, and even the method of tying the rope are all explained clearly and magically.

Zhang Zeduan was born in Wu Dong (now Zhucheng). He studied in Bianjing in his early years, then studied painting, and worked in Hanlin Painting Academy during the reign of Song Huizong Evonne (11-1125). He is good at drawing lines with boundary pens and rulers in Chinese painting, which is used to represent palaces, towers, houses and other themes, especially for painting boats, cars, shops, bridges, streets and battlements. His paintings are unique and unique. Most of Zhang Zeduan's paintings are scattered, and only The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is well preserved.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianjing was extremely prosperous, with four rivers passing through the city and four land routes. It is a national land and water transportation center, and its commercial development ranks first in the country. At that time, its population exceeded 1 10,000. There are many lively markets, shops and even night markets in Bianjing City. On holidays, the capital is even more lively. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival shows the land and water transportation and busy market in the capital of Northern Song Dynasty.

Before the Northern Song Dynasty, China's figure painting was dominated by religion and aristocratic life. Although Zhang Zeduan worked in the Hanlin Painting Academy, his works were all called "courtyard paintings" or "courtyard paintings", but he extended his brush to the lives of people from all walks of life and created social genre paintings describing urban and rural life. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival draws a large number of various figures. Moreover, the movements and expressions of each character in Zhang Zeduan are vivid. This fully shows that Zhang Zeduan's life is very rich and his creative skills are very skillful.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival takes the Bianhe River as a typical environment and depicts the world scenery of various people's activities, buildings and tools at that time, which is of great historical value. This painting is one of the most famous works in China's painting history, and there are many interesting stories circulating around it. ...

Song Dynasty is another big feudal dynasty after Tang Dynasty. The once prosperous economy made Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, the leading metropolis in the east. The culture and art of the Song Dynasty were also very prosperous, especially their painting art, which was also a peak in feudal society. Later generations often call it "Tang and Song paintings". However, from a deeper perspective, the Song Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty are still not in the same breath. In Song Dynasty, flower-and-bird paintings and boundary paintings tended to rise, while figure paintings tended to decline. The meticulous flower-and-bird painting in Evonne, Song Huizong, and the famous landscape painters Ma Yuan and Xia Gui in the Southern Song Dynasty can all prove the high achievements of landscape flower-and-bird painting. With the development of handicraft industry in the south of the Yangtze River, the urban economy was once prosperous, the citizen class was formed and expanded, and the corresponding culture was established. Zhang Zeduan's Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is an innovative work under this historical background. Compared with the works of great painters such as Yan and Wu Daozi in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Zeduan's creative perspective is aimed at the streets, facing the people and reflecting the lives of ordinary people, which is more close to the people and people's livelihood than that of emperors, nobles and religious figures. Art walked down the altar and the temple, abandoned the noble value orientation of the vassal and turned to vulgarization. To understand and evaluate Zhang Zeduan's Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival from the background of this social development, firstly, from the aesthetic point of view, there are very few works; Second, from the creative spirit, the author is valuable. Calling this work "the most famous genre painting" has both the positioning significance in artistic evaluation and the praise in the sense of social progress.

Zhang Zeduan, a native of Zhucheng, Wu Dong, studied in Bianjing in his early years and then studied painting. Hui Zong works in Hanlin Painting Academy and is good at painting chariots and horses, streets, bridges and city walls. In addition to painting The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, he also painted Bidding for the West Lake, both of which describe secular life. His works do not have that kind of scholar-bureaucrat spirit, and most of them take folk life as the theme. In The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, he described the citizens' life and social and economic situation centered on Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty, which provided vivid historical data for future generations to study the politics, economy, culture and science and technology of the Song Dynasty. This painting has a lot of value. In particular, hundreds of people are depicted with a lot of pen and ink and space, showing the scenes of their life and productive labor. This is rare in China's ancient paintings, and it is also a valuable place for the author.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has a typical representative significance in genre painting in the Northern Song Dynasty. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival takes the Bianhe River as a typical environment and depicts the world scenery of various people's activities, buildings and tools at that time, which is of great historical value. On the basis of careful observation, the painter faithfully and meticulously described the bustling scene of the gates, streets and lanes of Bianliang City in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Bianhe River outside the gates. There are various commercial activities, handicraft activities, water transport activities on the river and various people's sightseeing activities on the screen. In addition to restaurants, pharmacies and other large shops, there are incense shops, bow shops, small tea shops or wine shops at the crossroads, as well as pawn shops with "Jie" signs hanging in front of them. Carpenters who make wheels, blacksmiths who sell knives and scissors, flower sellers, fortune tellers and various vendors can all be identified one by one. There are all kinds of people in the street, officials riding horses, surrounded by waiters passing through the crowd; Some women ride in small cars. In this noise, some people carry loads, some people drive cars, and the styles of cars are different. Some people are making boats on the river, some are wandering around, and some are leaning against the fence at the door. This lively scene, the painter arranged in an orderly way, mixed but not chaotic, fascinating, and the ancient capital reappeared in front of him. There are many copies of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in the Southern Song Dynasty, including one or two volumes of gold, which shows the significance of southerners' nostalgia for the bustling feelings of their old capital.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a silk book with pale ink and wash, with a length of 24.8 cm and a width of 528.7 cm. It is a picture showing the urban landscape of Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. This picture scroll is a part of the capital chosen by the artist, and it is described in detail, just like a slice in a live video. From the vegetable garden in the outer city to the most prosperous area in the inner city, visitors can enjoy themselves. The artistic charm of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is remarkable. Apart from the majestic painting and superb realistic skills, there are excellent details.

With the unfolding of the picture scroll, people's eyes entered the picture with a wide river, which was the Bianhe River that provided grain transportation for the border beams and urban necessities at that time. There are busy boats on the river and many granaries along the river. The ship has landed, with a springboard, and is unloading. The painter was keenly aware of this common scene on the Bianhe River and painted these scenes with realistic brushes. The ship full of goods has a deep draft, and the water surface is almost close to the ship's side, while the ship unloaded goods has a shallow draft. This detail was captured by the painter and well reflected in the picture, making the content rich, vivid and highly realistic.

The most lively place depicted in the picture is the wooden arch bridge across the Bianhe River. Regarding this unique bridge, Yuan of the Song Dynasty recorded in his book "Tokyo Dream": "The bridge has no columns, and it is made up of a huge wooden frame decorated like a rainbow." There were three similar bridges in the capital of Song Dynasty, namely Hongqiao, Shangtu Bridge and Xiatu Bridge. According to the author's research, the bridge in the painting should be the one on the earth. The biggest feature of these bridges is that they are supported by huge wooden frames, and there are no columns under them. The span of the bridge is very large, and the clearance in bridge opening is very large, which is convenient for ships to pass. This bridge construction method has been lost, and now we can only know the superb wisdom of ancient craftsmen by the patterns depicted in the paintings.

Around this bridge, the painter gave full play to his painting skills and gave a panoramic description of the scenes and character activities on and off the bridge. The highlight of the performance is a wooden boat about to go against the current under the bridge. This is a narrow river, and the river is relatively fast. Fearing of danger, the boatmen on board were busy and shouting nervously on the deck and canopy. There are even some enthusiastic people on the bridge, regardless of their own safety, crossing the railing of the arch bridge, leaning out with one hand holding the railing and shouting loudly, waving with the other hand and commanding the ship to pass smoothly, just like the traffic police now. The characters in the painting are only a few inches in size, but their expressions are extremely vivid. Looking at the picture, as if you were there, you will feel nervous.

On the bridge above, there are many vendors scrambling to attract customers, and almost all the sidewalks on the bridge deck are occupied. Among them, the painter arranged a small detail: there is a booth on the left and right sides of the bridge embankment. When two stall owners saw a customer coming to the bridge, they held out their hands and invited the customer to their booth to buy things. On the other hand, customers look around and lean to the right, but look to the left and don't know what to do. Such wonderful details of life will be encountered by everyone when shopping, and commercial competition has existed since ancient times. When the audience sees this scene, they will definitely smile.

In the second half of the picture scroll, the painter Zhang Zeduan drew a wall and a gate truthfully, which is a difficult scene in general painting composition. Imagine a horizontal picture scroll, and the picture is suddenly cut off by a wall. This is really the principle of back-to-back, which is very taboo in painting creation. Improper arrangement will split the picture and cause failure. But Zhang Zeduan is a master among painters. He cleverly arranged a camel team on the screen. The camel team's tail is still slowly marching in the gate, and the first camel in front of the team has already exposed half of its body at the hole outside the gate. The little camel team penetrated the space blocked by the city wall at once. The artist's ingenious conception is really wonderful.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival not only has high artistic achievements, but also has high research value. The whole picture is large in scale, tight in structure and fascinating. It not only has the advantages of neat and accurate boundary painting, but also gives full play to the vividness of half-work and half-writing figure painting, which is a must. The Riverside Scene on the Qingming Festival is not only a treasure of realistic painting art, but also provides us with rich video materials such as commerce, handicrafts, folk customs, architecture and transportation in the metropolis of the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, it also has the value of historical documents. It is precisely because "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" has such great artistic charm in detail description that later generations of busybodies will tirelessly make numerous imitations and imitations to gain benefits.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is one of the most famous works in China's painting history. It is not only of superb artistic level, but also has many interesting stories circulating around it. In the history of painting, there are many paintings called The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, but there is only one original. After many scholars and experts' research on this subject, everyone's opinions are basically the same, and they all think that this painting of the Palace Museum in Beijing is an original of Zhang Zeduan in the Northern Song Dynasty. Other paintings of the same name were later copied or imitated by Zhang Zeduan.

However, there is no artist's own seal on this scroll in the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the confirmation that its author is Zhang Zeduan is based on an inscription of Zhang Zhu in Jin Dynasty in the postscript. Zhang Zhu's inscription has only a few words: "Hanlin Zhang Zeduan was born in Wudong (now Zhucheng, Shandong). When I was a child, I studied in Beijing, and later I learned to paint. I am a painter, and I am particularly interested in cruise ships, bridges, Guo Jing and other families. " However, there is no Zhang Zeduan's name in the book Xuan He Hua Pu written at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. Some people speculate that it may be that he entered the painting academy late and the editor had no time to compile it into the book.