Why is it called The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival?

Taking the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival as the introduction, he began to draw Bianjing in detail, which is a masterpiece of realistic genre painting and loved by all dynasties.

By the river during Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Zeduan Zhang

The long silk roll is colored, 24.8 cm long and 528.7 cm wide.

Collection of Beijing Palace Museum

The picture shows the city life of Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) in the Northern Song Dynasty. The first paragraph describes rural scenery, dead trees and grass bridges and endless travel. In the middle section, there are two big ships passing by Hongqiao. There are many vendors and pedestrians at the bridge. At the end of the painting, there is a street view in the city, a wine market in the Song building, a doctor in the workshop, many people and a bustling street. The author uses the traditional hand-rolled form to capture the scenery from a bird's-eye view by constantly shifting the viewpoint, with clear rhythm and compact structure. There are more than 500 characters, more than 50 livestock and more than 20 boats and cars in the whole volume, which are arranged in an orderly manner, each in its place, complicated and orderly. All kinds of characters wear different clothes, look different, work hard and contrast sharply. According to a certain plot combination, there are certain dramatic contradictions and conflicts, which makes people look very interesting. As for pen and ink skills, regardless of people, cars, boats, trees and houses, the lines are vigorous and old, and they are written with the work, and the colors are elegant, which is different from ordinary boundary paintings. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has made great achievements in artistic techniques and treatment. In content, it truly reflects all aspects of urban social life at that time, has important historical document value, and is a great realistic work.

Zhang Zeduan, born and died in an unknown year, was a painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. The word Zhengdao comes from Wu Dong (Zhucheng). Xuanhe period (1119 ~1125) was a bachelor of Hanlin. Wang Mengduan's Biography of Calligraphy and Painting said that he was "fond of painting, making boundary paintings, especially boats and cars, stone bridges and Guo Jing, and he was not married." The works handed down from ancient times include the long scroll The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival.