China's outstanding works of art in ancient times, such as The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival.

The long genre painting The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan, a famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, is a rare treasure in the history of painting in China. With realistic techniques and panoramic composition, it vividly and meticulously depicts the bustling scenes and rich social customs and habits of Kaifeng and Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. The whole picture is large in scale, tight in structure and orderly in composition. His pen and ink skills, combined with writing style, are vivid and concise, and the characters are vivid and vivid. The shapes of livestock, houses, ships, battlements, bridges, trees and rivers are all wonderful. Summarizing China's ancient paintings, many scholars are narcissistic. It's really hard to find a painting like The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which depicts the common life and commercial and economic activities of hundreds of people with a lot of pen and ink, and puts people in the position of masters, giving people a correct artistic summary. This is rare in China's ancient paintings and even in modern paintings. The first collector of this painting was Song Huizong, who wrote the words "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" in fine gold.

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. At present, there is no artist's own seal on this picture scroll collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the author confirmed it as Zhang Zeduan. According to an inscription by Zhang Zhu in the Jin Dynasty, Zhang Zhu's inscription is a few words: "Hanlin Zhang Zeduan, the word right, Wu Dong (now Zhucheng, Shandong Province) is also a person." When I was young, I studied in Beijing, and later I learned to draw. I am a painter, and I am particularly interested in cruise ships, bridges, Guo Jing, and other families. "According to the postscript, the author Zhang Zerui was originally from Zhucheng, Shandong. In his early years, he studied in Bianjing, then worked in the Painting Academy, and became a family of his own. His artistic achievements have never been valued by scholars and critics, so historical materials about him are extremely scarce. Fortunately, his immortal masterpiece "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" is still intact, which has established his due position in the history of China painting.

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" and "the seven dynasties". Among them, the Northern Song Dynasty was the most prosperous, with a population of 65,438+.

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 middle section of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is the river boat section.

The middle section describes the upstream and downstream of the Bianhe River, which was the river channel that provided water transportation and urban necessities for the Bianliang River at that time. Ships come and go on the river, and ships are busy transporting, building springboard and unloading. A huge oil tanker will put down its sails and masts and cross 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, one hand leaned out and the other hand shouted and waved, directing the ship to pass smoothly. Watching the crowd, eager to see this thrilling scene.

Panorama of the middle section of Qingming Riverside Map

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is not an ordinary genre painting. It aims to show a certain detail of a custom, but points out 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. Moreover, it has no intention of praising the peaceful scene of "peace for a long time and many people", but reveals that you can't go back to your hometown to sweep the grave or go to pavilions. 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.

Hongqiao part in the middle section of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival

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 it is also a sad song. Soon after the picture was completed, the Northern Song Dynasty fell.

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 8 15 people, more than 60 kinds of livestock, more than 20 wooden boats, more than 30 pavilions and more than 20 trolleys on the riverside map at Qingming Festival. 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 all aspects, so be careful not to lose sight of the whole picture or the situation. 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.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has been collected for more than 900 years since its publication. After several wars and disasters, I survived many times. According to Yang Zhun's postscript in Yuan Dynasty: "There is a title of Huisi before the volume", Li Dongyang wrote: "At the beginning of the volume, there is a five-character sign of Youling Fine Rib, and Shuanglong Small Seal." The title of this painting was inscribed by Song Huizong Evonne and signed by him. This painting should also be a work of Huizong's political propaganda period (A.D.111-125). The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has three inscriptions 13, such as Zhang Zhu, with 90 squares sealed and 6 squares semi-sealed. It shows that this painting was collected by the governments and many private individuals in the Northern Song Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, and was widely circulated.

The original collection of this painting should be Xuanhe Difu. After the death of the Northern Song Dynasty, it flowed to the north and entered the royal palace of the Yuan Dynasty, where it was stolen by a framed man and fell into the hands of Yan Song, a traitor of the Ming Dynasty. According to legend, Wang Shizhen, a writer of Ming Dynasty, was the ancestor of Shang Dynasty. Grandpa Wang treasures Zhang Zeduan's famous painting The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in the Song Dynasty. He cherishes this painting very much and refuses to show it to others easily. However, the powerful Yan Song at that time was drooling over this painting. He demanded from Wang Shangshu by virtue of his power. Wang Shangshu can't refuse, but he can't bear it. So he hired a clever painter to copy this painting "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" overnight. The next day, Wang Shangshu gave this fake to Yan Song. Originally, this brilliant fake has been fooled by Yan Song, but Yan Fu has an experienced bookbinder. He asked Yan Song for advice and pointed out that there was a sparrow standing on two tiles in the lower left corner of the painting, which showed that it was a fake. Yan Song was furious and found a reason to put Wang Shangshu in prison. In order to save his father, Wang Shizhen had to plead with Yan Fu with the original Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival.

Li Rihua's Diary of Wei Shui Xuan and Shen Defu's Wild Harvest Bu both recorded the story of Yan Song, a great traitor in the Ming Dynasty, and his son Yan Shifan relying on their power to seize the riverside scene in Qingming. Later generations once wrote a play "Legend of a handful of snow" based on this, but changed the riverside scene at Qingming Festival into a white jade cup of snow. In Qin Long, Yan Song and his son were impeached by Zou Yinglong, and the officialdom finally fell out of power. Yan Shifan was beheaded, Yan Fu was copied, and The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was once again included in the palace.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is the first collection written by Lu after Qing Dynasty. Lu Feiyong was a scholar during the Qianlong period. After he got the painting, he also printed an inscription on it. Bi yuan bought it. Bi Yuan was a scholar in the twenty-five years of Qianlong (1760). Bi Yuan loved epigraphy and calligraphy all his life, and he had a rich collection of books at home. After the painting "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" was won, I learned from it with my brother Bi Long (a connoisseur of collections in Qing Dynasty), and now the painting is marked by two people. When Bi Yuan worked in Guanzhong, he devoted himself to restoring and protecting local cultural relics, but these became his "crimes". Shortly after Bi Yuan's death, Huguang people revolted against the Qing Dynasty. The Qing court believed that Bi Yuan, as the governor of Huguang, "taught bandits to neglect at the beginning and squandered military expenses", not only took Gaby's job, but also killed all his family members, and his property, together with the Riverside Map at Qingming Festival, was stolen into the palace.

After the Qing court put the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival into the palace, it was placed in Yingchun Pavilion in the Forbidden City. Emperor Jiaqing cherished it and ordered it to be included in the third edition of Shiqu Baodi. Since then, the Riverside Map on the Qingming Festival has been kept in the Qing Palace. Although the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing twice in 1860 and Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing twice in 1900, they both escaped the disaster and were not damaged.

19 1 1 years later, the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, together with other precious paintings and calligraphy, was stolen from the palace by the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi, in the name of giving it to Pu Jie, and was first stored in Bird, a concession in Tianjin. 1932, Puyi established the Puppet Manchukuo with the support of the Japanese, so this famous painting was taken to Changchun and stored in the library building of the East Courtyard of Puppet Manchukuo Palace. 1In August, 945, the Second World War came to an end. Seeing that things were not good, Puyi fled to Dalizigou by plane, and the Puppet Palace was in a mess because of the fire. In the chaos, a large number of precious things, such as The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, were scattered among the people. 1946, Changchun was liberated by China People's Liberation Army. Comrade Zhang Kewei, a cadre of the People's Liberation Army, collected more than ten volumes of precious calligraphy and paintings scattered in the Puppet Manchuria Palace through local cadres, including The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. From 65438 to 0947, Comrade Zhang Kewei was transferred to the Northeast Administrative Committee. Before he left, he handed over more than ten scrolls to Comrade LAM Raymond, one of the main leaders of the Northeast Revolution at that time. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival entered the Northeast Museum by Lin Feng, and was later transferred to the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is still in the Palace Museum.