What life scene was depicted in The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival? (ーー; )

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a genre painting of China in the Northern Song Dynasty. By Zhang Zeduan.

Zhang Zeduan was born in Wu Dong (now Zhucheng). Song Huizong is a court painter. When I was a teenager, I studied in Beijing (now Kaifeng City, Henan Province) and then studied painting. I am good at boundary painting, especially like painting boats, bridges and outlines, and have become my own family. In addition to The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, his works also include an auction picture of the West Lake painted for him.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, long scroll, silk edition, light color, 24.8 cm long and 528.7 cm wide, collected by the Palace Museum. "Tomb-Sweeping Day" is one of the twenty-four solar terms in China lunar calendar. The main activity of this festival is to sweep the graves of ancestors. Some people think that this picture "Qingming" refers to the Qingming Square in the eastern suburb of the outer city of Bianliang. However, it is generally believed that the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival depicts the prosperity of Bianliang and Bianhe, the capital cities of the Northern Song Dynasty, during the Qingming period.

At the beginning of the book, it depicts the suburbs of Bianjing, the misty forest, the fields of farmhouses, the chilly spring, and a little donkey carrying charcoal into the city. Gradually, the willow branches are clustered, green as new, and pedestrians come and go. Among them, there are sedan chair teams returning from grave-sweeping, and there are also long-distance trips.

In the middle section, the Bianhe River connects with the Yellow River, crosses the south of Bianjing City from west to east, and flows into Huaisi. It was a traffic tunnel between the north and the south at that time, and it was the national water transportation hub in the Northern Song Dynasty. The huge waterwheel in the painting, either parked at the dock or driving in the middle of the river, creates a busy scene. There is a large arch bridge on the Bianhe River. The bridge has no columns, but is made up of huge wooden frames. It is exquisitely structured and beautifully shaped, just like a dancing rainbow. This bridge is called "Shangtu Bridge", which is outside the entrance of the east corner of Bianjing, and is seven miles away from Hongqiao in Bianjing. Both ends of the bridge are closely connected with the market, and the traffic flows from south to north. A huge oil tanker is lowering its mast and preparing to cross the bridge. The boatmen were shouting and operating nervously, which attracted a crowd of spectators and became the climax of the whole painting.

The second half is about city streets, with tall and majestic towers as the center, with streets on both sides and rows of houses.

There are teahouses, restaurants, limb shops, butcher shops, temples, public temples and so on. All kinds of shops operate brocade, sandalwood, fragrant paper horses and so on. There are also medical clinics, car repair, fortune telling, shaving and plastic surgery, and all walks of life have everything. Pedestrians in the market are jostling with each other, and people from all walks of life are ready.

The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a very realistic work. Everything painted is typical and has a strong flavor of the times. The details of the picture are very real, such as the structure of the bridge, the style of horses and chariots, the clothes and costumes of the characters, the different activities of people from all walks of life and so on. The description is meticulous, vivid and rich, which reflects the vastness and diversity of social life and material civilization and has irreplaceable historical value.