Qingming Festival by the Riverside |
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Many ancient Chinese paintings contain the seals and signatures of both the painter and the collector. There is one famous Chinese painting, the Qingming Festival by the Riverside, which is covered with innumerable signatures and seals, indicating it had been in the hands of many private and official collectors. The painting survived many calamities and historical shifts and was handed down to the present; some collectors even sacrificed their lives in order to preserve this art treasure.
The picture was done by the Song painter Zhang Zeduan. He was a native of Shandong Province, and studied painting in his early years in Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. Later he became a painter of the Imperial Painting Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty. Though there are not many historical records of him, his name is remembered simply because of this great art work.
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Features of Qingming Festival by the Riverside |
Qingming Festival by the Riverside is a long colored painted scroll with a length of 528 cm and a height of 24.8 cm. It portrays the noisy street scenes of Bianjing during the Qingming Festival (a festival for the mourning of ancestors). During that time, people kept the custom of going to street fairs at the Qingming Festival. The painting has complicated scenes with rigorous structures. The painting can be divided into three parts: scenes of the suburb, the Bian River and the city streets.
Section of the painting on the far right, showing travelers amidst a wooded countryside. |
In the suburban scene, farmers are working in the fields and wealthy people are returning from mourning their ancestors. The street is crowded with people on horseback, wheel carts and sedan chairs.
A scene of boats docking along the side of the river and urban sprawl approaching the main gate of the city. |
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The bridge scene where the crew of an oncoming boat have not yet fully lowered their sails and are in danger of crashing into the bridge.
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The scene of the Bian River is the most magnificent part of the painting. The arch bridge stands like a rainbow over the river; on the bridge are streams of people bustling about, and under the bridge are numerous boats competing to move forward. Some interesting scenes are drawn in great detail. For instance, a horse has shied on the bridge, scaring a donkey and attracting many onlookers.
| Scenes of the city streets |
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Scene of urban sprawl right before the bridge leading to the main gate of the city (seen on the far left). |
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The main gate of the city and the urban setting within, with teahouses, vendors, homes, and various figures interacting with one another. |
Bianjing was the political, economical and cultural center of the Northern Song Dynasty. Its important role in the empire is fully depicted in the painting's city street scene. The streets are lined with government mansions, residential courtyards, workshops, teahouses and grocery shops. Various wagons and people from all walks of life can be seen in the picture and convey an exciting and bustling atmosphere. The scenes in the picture are carefully arranged, forming interesting contrasts and a good sense of rhythm. The depiction of the architecture, merchants and transportation in Bianjing vividly reflects the economic boom of the Northern Song Dynasty.
There are over 550 human figures, some 60 animals, 20 wooden boats, 30 rooms and pavilions, and about 20 vehicles of various kinds in the Qingming Festival by the Riverside. Few ancient pictures have such rich content. What is more, all the figures and detailed scenes of the painting are arranged rationally, creating an effect of bustle and complexity that still remains well-ordered. All these elements reveal the painter's careful observation of life and his supreme painting skills.Qingming Festival by the Riverside is a great and rare realistic painting. At the same time, it provides vivid visual information about business, handicrafts, architecture and transportation tools in the big metropolis of the Northern Song Dynasty. |
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Legend of the Scroll |
These detailed depictions and the artist’s wonderful painting skills have earned the scroll a great name and collectors have been competing for it for centuries.
After the demise of the Song Dynasty, the painting was stolen from the palace, changed hands among different private collectors, and then came back into the royal collections several times before it landed in the hands of Qing Dynasty Emperor Jiaqing. From then on it was kept in the Forbidden City.
But its legendary story did not stop there. The Xinhai revolution in 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen terminate the rule of feudal emperors, and Puyi, the last Qing emperor, was abdicated. But shortly before he moved out of the Forbidden City in 1924, some precious imperial collections, including Qingming Festival by the Riverside, were taken out of the palace in the name of gifts to his younger brother.
In the 1930s, Puyi became the emperor of the puppet regime authorized by Japan in NE. China, and he took the scroll with him, along with other treasures. At the end of the anti-Japanese war in 1945, he intended to leave for Japan, carrying the scroll with him. While he was waiting at the airport before heading for Japan he was stopped by Communist Party representatives who took the scroll back to the place where it waited for Yang Renkai to re-discover it.
In the winter of 1950 in NE China, when experts embarked on a task to sort out China’s cultural legacy that had survived the wars in the first half of the twentieth century, no one know there was an unparalleled art treasure would be shocked the world.
When opened an old stale scroll, connoisseur Yang Renkai, was amazed. In front of his eyes was an antique, hazel world.
Ancient Chinese collectors would usually use their seals or leave their mark on the paintings in their collection. What caught Yang’s eye about this particular scroll was the number of seals and marks it had. This indicated it had been in the hands of many collectors as an art treasure. Up to three seals were from the last Qing emperor Puyi (1905-1967), showing he was particularly fond of the scroll. Based on some of the marks, Yang thought that it might be the Qingming Festival by the Riverside, done by Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126) painter Zhang Zeduan.
The discovery caused a commotion. The scroll was transferred to Beijing for further verification, which proved its authenticity. Since then, it has been housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
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Editor: liling |
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