Brief Introduction of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is one of the top ten famous paintings handed down by China. It is a genre painting of the Northern Song Dynasty and the only masterpiece that Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, has ever seen. This is a national treasure, which is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is 24.8 cm wide and 528.7 cm long, and it is in silk color. In the form of a long scroll, the work vividly records the city appearance of Tokyo (also known as Bianjing, now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of China in the Northern Song Dynasty in the12nd century, and the living conditions of people from all walks of life at that time. It is a witness to the prosperity of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and also a portrayal of the economic situation of the Northern Song Dynasty.

This is unique in the history of painting in China and even in the world. In the five-meter-long picture scroll, a large number of various figures are drawn, including cattle, mules, donkeys and other livestock, cars, sedan chairs, large and small ships, houses, bridges and towers, reflecting the architectural characteristics of the Song Dynasty. It has high historical value and artistic value.

Content of Riverside Map on Qingming Festival:

Rich in content and depicting many things. 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, fortune tellers, monks, Taoist priests, petty officials, women, children, teachers, cable car drivers and animals such as donkeys, cows and camels. 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 different opinions about the number of people painted in The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, including more than 500 people (Bai Shouyi's General History of China), 8 15 people (Tang Youchang's Meter Method), and Qian's Zhuo Juan Ba. In addition, there are more than 60 livestock and wooden boats.

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, but also with different facial expressions and temperament, and interspersed with various activities, full of dramatic plot conflicts, which make the audience have endless aftertaste.