Riverside Scenes at the Qingming Festival

Riverside Scenes at the Qingming Festival is Zhang Zeduan’s unique work now left in the world.It is kept in Beijing Imperial Palace Museum at present.Its width is 25.5 cm and its lenth is 525 cm.There are 684 human characters in the picture,96 animals,122 houses,8 sedan chairs,25 boats,124 trees.

 

It describes prosperous Bian Capital in Qingming Festival,being the witness of flourishing Bian City and its economic development at that time.We can learn something about the cities and people in North Song through this painting,so it has quite high value in history.

 

Bian Capital was very blooming in North Song period,it had rich river lines.Also it was the national traffic center in river and road.Its commerce was the No.1 around the country at that time,its population was more than 1 million.There were lots of bustling streets in Bian City,and the streets had kinds of shops,even the night market.When in festivals,Bian City would be more cheerful.In order to show the bloom in the capital,Zhang Zeduan chose Qingming Festival,this important festival,to have detialis in 59 points.

 

Riverside Scenes at the Qingming Festival has three parts.The first part is some scenes about countryside beside Bian Capital.The second part is about Rainbow Bridge and the two-sides landscape of Bian River.And the last part is about the downtown of Bian Capital.The large human characters are less than 3 cm,and the small are just as the pulse.If you observe them carefully,you will find many interesting things.

 

The details about three parts

 

The first part:In sparse trees and mist,there are some hovels,grass bridges,rivers,trees,boats.Two farmers catch five donkeys which have charcoal on their backs,walking to city.A willow grove,their branches just begin to germinate.It makes people know that although it is cold but the spring has been coming.On the road,a woman sat in sedan chair.Some picture about poplar,willow,flowers decorate the top of sedan chair.Behind the sedan chair,some people ride horses,some people carry loads with carrying poles,they finish sweeping the graves and return from countryside.

 

The second part:Bian River was the center of traffic,transportation and commerce in the country of North Song.From this picture,we can see the populous streets,a large number of grain boats.People some rest in teahouses,some tell fortunes,some eat in restaurants.The Wang Faimly Paper-horse shop,it sells something about sweeping graves.In the rivers,there are a lot of boats,they are pulled or sculled by boatmen.Some boats have full goods,going with backflow.Some stop at the bank,they are unloading busily. Across Bian River,it is a huge wood bridge which has exquisite structure,graceful style,looked like a rainbow,so it has the name of Rianbow Bridge.A boat is going to cross the bridge,some boatmen prop with bamboo poles,some hook the bridge with long poles,some draw boat with ropes with rope made of hemp,and ohters are busy putting down the mast to let the boat pass successfully.And the people of near boats also say something loudly.All people on the boat are busy with passing bridge.The persons on the bridge are worrying with the boat’s passing.The place is the famous Rainbow Bridge dock.

 

The third part:

Zhang Zeduan used the huge gate tower as the center,the both sides have many houses,such as teahouses,winehouses,meat shops,temples etc.There are kinds of silks and satins, jewelry and perfume,paper-horse and so on in the shops.What’s more,there are medicine shops,clinics,garages and many other lines.A grear number of people walk on the street,some are businessmen,some are officials riding horses,some are vendor selling goods,some are big family dependants sitting in the sedan chairs,some are monks carrying baskets,some are visitors asking places,some are children listening some books,some are juniors rich and powerful family playing in restaurants,some are disable old men begging alms and so on.