Folk Information of Riverside Map in Qingming Festival

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a long scroll with historical value. By describing the activities of people from all walks of life in Bianliang (now Kaifeng), Tomb-Sweeping Day, Bianhe with Hongqiao as the center, the author reflects some aspects of social life in this historical period. Hanlin Zhang Zeduan (AD12nd century), a native of Zhucheng, Shandong Province, was a professional painter at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. I used to work in the Painting Academy, and I was good at drawing figures, pavilions, boats and cars. The distance between the bridge and the house on the city wall, the size of grass, trees, horses, cows, donkeys and camels, as well as residents, pedestrians, boats and cars, are all vividly written. The whole scene is huge and rich in content.

Why is it called "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival"? There are different opinions. Some people think that the word "Tomb-Sweeping Day" in The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival does not refer to "Tomb-Sweeping Day", but describes the riverside autumn scenery from Qingming Square to Hongqiao in Bianjing at that time.

Most people think that the painting depicts the life scene of the Bianhe River in the suburbs of Bianjing during the Qingming Festival, so it is called "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival". The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is set in Kaifeng, Northern Song Dynasty. Kaifeng, located in the middle of Henan Province, was called Bianliang and Bianjing in ancient times. It is one of the seven ancient capitals of China. From the Warring States to the Jin Dynasty, seven feudal dynasties established their capitals here, which is called "the capital of emperors since ancient times".

Known as the "Seven Dynasties", it was the most prosperous in the Northern Song Dynasty, with a population of over 1.5 million. It was one of the most prosperous cities in the world at that time.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival can be divided into three parts: countryside, Bianhe and market. The middle section is centered on "Hongqiao", which shows the tense atmosphere of transportation on Bianhe River and reaches the climax of the whole volume.

The whole picture is from right to left, from outside the city to the city, so that viewers can enjoy it. The first thing I saw when I opened the book was the breath of the suburbs, chilly spring, full of green, sparse forests and mist, farmhouse restaurants and criss-crossing buildings. At first, the two men came with a group of donkeys carrying charcoal, crossed a small bridge and hurried to the city through a sparse forest hut. A sedan chair, escorted by several servants, came back from an outing in the suburbs along a winding path covered with willow branches. Its leading rider was frightened and ran wildly, and people and animals nearby reacted differently. This is the introduction of the whole picture.

The riverside scene in Qingming Festival The scenery of Bianjing City in the suburbs during Qingming Festival is pleasant.

The middle part describes the upper and lower sides of the Bianhe River.

At that time, this Bianhe River provided the Bianliang River with food transportation and urban necessities. Ships come and go on the river, and ships busy transporting and docking are unloading on the springboard. A huge tanker will sail and lower the mast, and it will pass under the bridge. The boatmen were in a hurry, shouting and shouting, which touched people's hearts. Some enthusiastic people on the bridge, regardless of their own safety, crossed the railing of the arch bridge, leaning out with one hand and waving with one hand, commanding the ship to pass smoothly. Watching the crowd, eager to see this thrilling scene.

In the middle section of the Qingming Riverside Map, ships are busy.

Along the River During the Qingming Festival

It is not an ordinary genre painting, but is designed to show a certain detail of a custom. Instead, we should focus on Tomb-Sweeping Day and abandon unimportant details of Tomb-Sweeping Day. Its original intention is not to render Tomb-Sweeping Day, sweep graves, fields like cities, gardens and pavilions, etc. And it has no intention to praise the rising scene of "peace and prosperity, many people", but to reveal that you are far away from home, and you can neither go back to your hometown to visit the grave nor attend the frontier. In fact, it is these humble laborers who bring food to the people of Bianjing, and they are the basic driving force to maintain the prosperity of Beijing.

On Hongqiao in the Middle Section of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival

The traffic is heavy, coming and going.

bustling

On the screen, a large wooden arch bridge spans the river and connects the markets on both sides of the river. This bridge has no columns, and the bridge body is supported by the upper and lower arches, thus extending into a long-span flying bridge, just like a dancing rainbow. The traffic on Hongqiao is very busy, from south to north. Trolleys and horses, mules carrying rice bags, about to get on the bridge, people carrying goods, soliciting customers and vendors, make the originally wide bridge deck narrow.

The painter uses the twists and turns of the bridge on the river bank to guide the viewer to constantly shift his perspective, or tilt up or down, which becomes the visual guidance of the turning point of flow. The best part of this painting is the depiction of a ship crossing Hongqiao. The rhythm of the picture is so sudden that people, livestock, boats and cars gather together, just like the rhythm of music. The crowd on the bridge is bustling, and the tension of boating under the bridge constitutes the climax of the picture. Around this bridge, the painter gave full play to his painting skills. The characters in the painting are only inches in size, but they are very vivid and vivid, as if they were there.

The tower part in the second half of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival

After crossing Hongqiao, the Bianhe River turned to the top, winding and creating a bustling street scene. Bianjing, as the political, economic and cultural center at that time, was full of government, houses, workshops and houses. All walks of life are thriving, restaurants and shops are dazzling, signboards are numerous, and restaurants and department stores are available. All kinds of shops operate brocade, sandalwood, fragrant paper horses and so on. In addition, there are medical clinics, cart repair, fortune-telling visits, shaving and plastic surgery, and various religions. The market is full of people, traffic, pedestrians jostling shoulder to shoulder, an endless stream, very lively. Camel teams under the Drum Tower come from afar, and people in teahouses and pubs are relaxed and carefree.

The market in the second half of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is not only a treasure of realistic painting art, but also has historical document value. It provides us with rich video materials and encyclopedias of commerce, handicrafts, folk customs, architecture, transportation and other aspects of the metropolis in the Northern Song Dynasty. Unfolding this long scroll is like stepping into the bustling urban life in China 12 century. It reflects the vastness and diversity of social life and material civilization, and has irreplaceable literature and historical value. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival vividly shows the industrial and commercial development in the late Northern Song Dynasty. It is a hymn to the social and economic prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty, and also a sad song. Soon after the picture was completed, the Northern Song Dynasty fell.