"Qingming Riverside Drawing" records the buildings and livelihoods of the suburbs of Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province), the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty, and both sides of the Bianhe River in the city with delicate brushwork. The painting depicts the prosperous scenes and natural scenery of Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and both sides of the Bian River during the Qingming Festival. The work is in the form of a long scroll, adopting the composition method of scattered perspective, incorporating complicated scenes into a unified and rich in changeable picture, with more than 1,000 characters in the painting, dressed differently, with different looks, interspersed with various activities, focusing on drama, sparse and dense composition, focusing on the sense of rhythm and changes in rhythm, and skillful brushwork and ink strokes. The whole picture is divided into three paragraphs.
The first paragraph, Bianjing countryside in the spring:
In the sparse forest mists, covered with a few thatched cottages, grass bridges, running water, old trees, flat boats, two footmen drove five donkeys carrying charcoal, coming to the city. A willow forest, the branches just out of the tender green, so that people feel that although it is cold, but the earth has returned to spring. On the road, a sedan chair, sitting inside a woman. The top of the sedan chair is decorated with willow flowers, and the sedan chair is followed by horseback riders and burden bearers, who are returning from the outskirts of the capital to sweep the graves. The description of the environment and characters, pointing out the specific time and customs of the Qingming Festival, for the whole painting unfolded the prologue.
The middle part, busy Bianhe River dock:
Bianhe River is the hub of waterway and commercial transportation in Northern Song Dynasty, and you can see from the picture that it is densely populated with people and grain ships, and there are some people resting in the teahouse, some fortune-tellers, and some eating in the dining halls. There is also "Wang's Paper Horse Shop", which sells offerings for the grave, and the ships in the river are in contact with each other, or the slender man pulling, or the boatman sculling, and some of them are full of goods, swimming upstream, and some of them are anchored on the bank and unloading the goods nervously. Across the Bianhe River is a magnificent wooden arch bridge, it is a delicate structure, beautiful form. It looks like a rainbow, so it is called Rainbow Bridge. There is a big boat is waiting to cross the bridge. Boatmen have bamboo poles to support; have a long pole hooked to the bridge; have hemp rope to hold the boat; there are a few people are busy putting down the mast, so that the boat through. The men in the neighboring boats were also pointing and shouting as if they were shouting something. Both inside and outside the boat were busy with the boat crossing the bridge. People on the bridge are also sweating over the tense situation of crossing the bridge. Here is the famous Hongqiao dock area, traffic, bustling, literally a meeting point of land and water transportation.
The latter part, the bustling downtown streets:
Centered on the tall Citadel, the houses on either side are lined with tea houses, wine shops, foot stores, butcher stores, temples, public houses, and so on. Stores have damask and silk, jewelry and spices, incense and paper horses, etc., in addition to medical clinics, car repair, fortune-telling, face-lifting, all walks of life, all kinds of trades, the big stores also tie the head of the door "colorful building happy door", hanging banners, solicitation of business, the market pedestrians, shoulder to shoulder, the endless flow of people, there are businessmen and merchants, there are watching the street scene merchants, there are looking at the streetscape of the gentry, officials on horseback, there are hawkers, there is a sedan chair for everyone's family, there are carrying a basket of walking monks, there are asking for directions to the countryside tourists, there are hearing the book of the streets and alleys of the children, there are restaurants in the wild drinking of the son of the rich and powerful, there is the side of the city begging for the disabled old people, men and women, young and old, the scholar-peasants, industrialists and businessmen, the three religions and nine streams, everything is not available. Transportation means of delivery: sedan chair, camel, oxen and horse-drawn carts, rickshaws, pinto cars, flathead cars, in all shapes and sizes, all kinds of things. Drawing colors and shapes in front of people's eyes.
Total in more than five meters long scroll, *** painted more than five hundred and fifty colorful characters, cattle, horses, mules, donkeys and other livestock five, sixty horses, cars, bridges more than twenty, the size of the ship more than twenty. Houses, bridges and citadels also have their own characteristics, reflecting the architecture of the Song Dynasty. Zhang Zeduan's Qingming Shanghe Tu is a realistic genre painting depicting a corner of Bianjing City in the Northern Song Dynasty, with high historical value and artistic level.
Artistic Characteristics
Several very distinctive artistic characteristics can be seen in "Qingming Shanghe Tu":
First, rich content. First, it is rich in content. In its presentation method, the Qingming Riverside Drawing takes in the desired scene by constantly moving the viewpoint, i.e., the "scattered perspective method". From the vast wilderness, the vast rivers, the towering citadels, to the nails and rivets on the boats and carts, the small commodities on the vendors, and the words on the market posters, the painting harmoniously organizes itself into a unified whole with the figures of clergymen, farmers, merchants, medical doctors, soothsayers, monks, Taoists, Xu-xu-ministers, women, children, polemasters, and cablemen as well as the donkeys, horses, cows, camels, and other livestock. There were episodes of gathering, buying and selling, hanging out, drinking, talking, pushing boats, pulling carts, riding sedan chairs, riding horses, and so on. The painting of the streets and alleys, stores, hotels, teahouses, dim sum stores and other restaurants, and city buildings, river ports, bridges, cargo ships, government houses and thatched cottages and village houses dense. Qingming Shanghe Tu" in the painting of eight hundred and fifteen people, all kinds of livestock more than sixty horses, more than twenty wooden boats, more than thirty houses and pavilions, carts by sedan chair also has more than twenty pieces. Such a rich and colorful content is rare in ancient paintings of all times. Various characters engaged in a variety of activities, not only dressed differently, look temperament is also different and interspersed with a variety of activities, which is full of dramatic plot conflict, so that the viewer to see the industry, have endless memories.
Second, the structure is rigorous, complex but not chaotic, long but not redundant, paragraphs and paragraphs. Valuable, so colorful content, the main body is prominent, the first and last echo, the whole volume as one. Every character, scene and detail in the painting are arranged in a reasonable manner, and the relationship between sparseness, complexity and simplicity, static and movement, and gathering and dispersing of the picture are handled appropriately, so as to achieve a complex but not miscellaneous, and more but not chaotic. Fully demonstrated the painter's deep insight into social life and a high degree of picture organization and control.
Third, in terms of technique, the combination of large and fine brushstrokes, good at choosing those who are both figurative and poetic, but also with the essential characteristics of the things, scenes and episodes to be expressed. Very meticulous observation of life, characterization of each character, props. Each person has his/her own identity, demeanor, and plot. Houses, bridges, and other buildings are structurally rigorous, and are depicted with meticulous care. The carriages, horses, and ships are all in one place, but the whole picture is not lost, and the momentum is not lost. For example, the objects on the ship, the way to nail and rivet, and even the knotting and fastening are clearly explained, breathtaking.
Evaluation
Bai Shouyi as adviser to the "General History of China (color book)" on the "Qingming Riverside Drawing" evaluation of the whole volume of more than 500 painted characters, livestock more than 50, all kinds of cars and boats more than 20 ships, many houses, props, huge scenes, paragraphs and paragraphs, structured and organized. Skillful techniques, meticulous brushwork, strong lines, heavy and sophisticated. Reflects the highly refined painting skills and outstanding artistic achievements. At the same time, because the painting was painted for the social record, for later generations to understand the study of the Song Dynasty urban social life provides important historical information.
The Concise Encyclopedia of Britain, in the article "Zhang Zeduan", evaluates "Qingming Shanghe Tu" as a custom scroll with important historical value. The artist successfully depicted the life of all social classes in Bianjing city and its suburbs during the Qingming Festival. The main representation is of laborers and small citizens. The interrelationships among figures, buildings, transportation, trees and water flow are handled very skillfully with a strong sense of wholeness, which is of great historical value. Since then, the urban customs paintings of all generations have been influenced by them.
Look at the picture to speak
Lightly open this picture, see the brook next to the road a slip of pack, far from the northeast to Bianliang, five mules and horses loaded with exhaustion, the front of the horseman to the leading livestock to the corner of the bridge, the back of the packer with a whip to the pack to drive the pack forward, the destination is about to arrive, the packer from the skillful driving the pack of the look know that they are walking for many years, the old horse gang. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a new one, and you'll be able to do that.
Next to the bridge, a small sampan is bolted to the root of a tree, a few small farm houses are scattered in the trees, and there are four crows' nests on the branches of a few tall trees, which look different from the crows' nesting methods and heights nowadays. There were several stone mills in the wheat field, which were used for threshing in the fall harvest, but they were still unused at this time. There are a few sheep in the sheep pen, sheep pen seems to be next to the chicken and duck circle, as if the circle raised a large group of chickens and ducks, a good picture of the quiet countryside, do not have to marvel at more than a thousand years ago, the Song Dynasty has such as on this developed agriculture and farming.
And then look over the picture is the interface between agriculture and trade, right above is a team of bridegroom to marry his wife's team, Xu Xu turned from the north, behind the groom rode a jujube-red horse, the horse is a pick of the bride's dowry behind the feet of the horse, the horse before the bride's grooming items box, in front of a sedan chair should be the bride to sit in because of sedan chair at the surface of the various kinds of grasses and flowers decorated, this can be called Sedan chair"; "Sedan chair" is the word both the bride to get married when riding on the transportation on the source of this folk custom it. Behind the sedan chair a picket picking a load of fish, said the woman's mother's family blessing son-in-law rich and valuable fish (Yu) (according to folklore: the Qingming period of tomb-sweeping is Zhu Yuanzhang era only emerged, "Zhu Yuanzhang story": at that time, Zhu Wuzhang when the monks, begging for food, and later joined the army, and finally when the leader of the army, when the army passed by his hometown, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of sweeping the graves of his parents when he arrived at the mountain, due to the graves of many, and he was away from home for too long, and did not know what to expect. He was away from home for too long, and do not know which grave is his parents, and because of their own military affairs are very busy, can not be delayed for too long, and then thought of an idea, when it was the Qingming Festival, when an order was given to order the people in the Qingming Festival must be sweeping the graves, a few days within the graves of the tomb are to pay homage to sweeping the graves of the only two graves have not been people to pay homage to a look is really the graves of their own parents, it is said that from then on, the Qingming Festival to pay homage to ancestors, trekking on the Qingming Festival, and to pay homage to the ancestors. It is said that since then, the Qingming period to commemorate the ancestors, the green sweeping has become a folk custom, before the Ming Dynasty, this kind of activity can be placed on any day of the year, so I think that this Song Dynasty painting, just because there is the word Qingming, said that the team is a tomb sweeping activities to return to the inappropriate, it should be a team of activities to receive relatives to marry the wife).
The welcoming team gradually into the market, the front of the artists immediately sing and dance to attract people's attention, more lively scene, I do not know is this scene caused a few tea in the teahouse tea doctor's attention, or another thing that is happening to make them dumbfounded, right next to a bare shoulders, skilled acrobatic performers are ignored, tea doctor, they are turning their heads to look this way, it turned out that not far from the opposite side of a head of just unloaded, and the other side is not far away from the front of the team, and the other side is not far away from the front of the team. It turned out that not far from the opposite side of a just unloaded a donkey saw the opposite side of the teahouse in front of the tethered donkeys, then immediately issued a courtship call, the opposite sex in front of the teahouse donkeys immediately responded to the donkey to twist the donkey's front hooves jumping in the air, trying to respond to the helpless reins tethered to be too firm, and could not be broken. The braying donkey also tried to run to the direction of the teahouse donkey, then a child in the direction of the donkey front run not far, a pile of danger in front of us, just in the nick of time, the car next to the car driver wants to run forward to hold open the child, but how can a person run so fast? At this time, another driver came forward and grabbed the donkey's reins, a pile of serious traffic accidents avoided, people only then breathed a sigh of relief. (Note: It is said that the donkey car at the original damage, is to be changed later to make up for it, it is worth discussing: the front of a bust should be in the middle of the donkey and donkey car, donkey car to cover the lower half of his body, hands and donkey whip, reaching out to the donkey reins, just the driver to reach out and pull the reins, the power to salvage a life-and-death situation is the author of the pen of God).
A farmhouse by the teahouse houses two cows, although in the vicinity of such a great event, but the two cows are indifferent, they are still leisurely regurgitation, the distant field seedlings are growing, farmers are watering and fertilizing the seedlings.
To the south, a family of two is traveling, hiring two animals and packers, and a footman picking up what they need to travel slowly toward the southeast.
A hotel directly across the street in front of the teahouse, due to the lack of business breakfast so it is late to hold up the banner of soliciting customers, the hotel opened in the bulk cargo terminal, business is naturally very prosperous, but the guests are busy with the business, but also less than the time to eat and drink, you can see that the owners of the dock are counting the goods to be sent to a certain place, the dockworkers are the goods shipped to the stacking up of the goods ready to be based on the shipment of goods near and far, the timely arrangement of loading and unloading, as the saying goes. The dock workers are stacking up the goods to be shipped, ready to arrange loading and unloading according to the distance of the place of shipment, so to speak. Another ship is also unloading cargo, in this, two hundred years old tree branches and leaves in the gap, you can see the thick sails and ropes, should also be about 60, 70 tons of displacement of the big ship. The middle of the street between the hotel and the teahouse, there is a is shouting a fortune-telling Mr., may want to ask him to measure what things, whether it is marriage, family or business, Mr. fortune-telling heard that came to the business, light footsteps can be seen in his joy. To the street to look over, a package store people and a buyer and seller is talking about things, as if I can hear them in the conversation, tomorrow also order what oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar and when to pay the bill and so on words, and then past a few stores store, and an avenue stretching away and there are pedestrians and mules and horses walking.
And then past a few stores is the main road Bianliang Avenue, the main road on both sides of the traffic and stores, are surrounded by the feng shui treasure of the cargo wharf and freight stacks, the freight stacks geographic location is very advantageous, surrounded by the streets in all directions, the south side of the deep-water harbor, there are several ships moored in the harbor in order to load and unload goods, a dock by the general is unloading, a few longshoremen are putting the elephant in the sacks containing grain and so on, the dock is the most important thing. Contained with grain and other sacks to carry off the ship, the ship's warehouse is turning the warehouse and on the goods, seems to be able to hear the ship's warehouse to give people to put the goods on the shoulders of the sacks of the labor horn sound. Immediately adjacent to the dock of the warehouse to be unloading and loading of the ship, and so on the shipmaster on board the ship on the meal to start the ship, the warehouse in front of the shipmaster has just finished checking out is about to go on the ship, halfway in the middle of the way just met an acquaintance, the heart of the mind to hurry to line the ship, but can not be to stay slow acquaintance or friend, in the eagerness and the chilly family, and finally clasped fists and salute to say goodbye. At this time, the footsteps have already turned, hurrying to go on board the appearance of the boat has been superb.
The main channel of the pier in a cargo ship against the water, the boat right above the string of sailors are closely watching the moment to deal with, to avoid collision with the moored ships. In the river to go safety is very important, the bow of a moored in front of the pier, XinZhuoPre has come out a sailor, always pay attention to the movement of the boat, ready to rule out collision between the boats, traveling in the boat seems to berth, the boat's "head of the fiber" (pulling the fiber team of the first fiberglass man) has turned around to greet partners to close the fiber. And then to the river upstream to see, a boat with eight scullers sculling, visible water speed is very fast, a helmsman closely watching the water and boat conditions in the forward direction. In front of a passenger ship is busy docking, this is a passenger terminal, there are more than twenty people on board the passenger ship in nervous work, the top of the ship several boatmen are closing the sails and putting down the masts, some boatmen are receiving the cables thrown down from the Bianhe River Bridge, ready to tow the passenger ship to the pier, and then fastened to the shore of the ship's pillars, in order to increase the stability of the passenger ship, the sailor on the left string of the ship with the ship artemisinium support the ship towards the pier, in order to increase the power of the pier close to, two sailors in the bow of the ship on the one hand, and on the other hand, the ship's sailor is holding up the ship to the pier, in order to increase the power of the pier. There are two sailors on the bow of the boat on the one hand to the right side of the boat to support, on the other hand, turn their heads to pay attention to the pier, to make the passenger ship to the pier to adjust the strength of the boat, another boatman hand hold support artemesia right hand forward swinging, commanding the dock of the boatman to meet, it seems that he should be the head of this passenger ship sailor. Passenger ship body shape wide stability is quite good, the boatmen in their respective roles and work quite skillfully, the action is very coordinated, it seems to be a group of very high quality boatmen, the warehouse body and the warehouse surface is closed and blocked, and there is a warehouse door to facilitate the guests to go out and in, the ship did not stop before the warehouse door will not be opened, the security measures are quite rigorous, it can be concluded that it is a long-distance passenger ship with good safety performance.
There are still many people on the dock who greeted their family members or friends and relatives on the boat, some of them also went to Bianhe Bridge and greeted by the height of the bridge in order to see their relatives earlier, and there were people who waved their hands and shouted on the next smaller boat, which was soliciting for business and calling the guests who needed to go to the dock of the branch river channel, so we can imagine how developed the transportation was in the basin of the River Bianhe at that time, and how the transportation was in the water and droughts. It can be imagined that the transportation in the Bianhe River basin was very developed, and the water and drought routes formed a large transportation network for passengers and freight.
The Bianhe Bridge is so imposing that it is so tall that the biggest ships in Bianhe River Basin can cross it smoothly, and so wide and sturdy that it can drive several loaded animal-drawn carts side by side, and it is a great creation from the point of view of the structure of the bridge. The engineers and technicians at that time exerted their ingenuity to rivet and mortise and tenon the whole root of the big wood side by side to support the span of the bridge, and the bridge surface with rows of wood chain solid pestle tight, so that it forms a large and strong whole, and dispersed the weight to make the wood across the river force uniformity, imagine in more than a thousand years ago, there is no engineering machinery in the case of the wood across the river, the difficulty of the building can be imagined, the engineering of the vastness of the project is how the magnificent mountains and rivers. There is a firm guard on the side of the bridge to protect the safety of carriages, horses and pedestrians, so that the use of the project performance and quality has reached an impeccable realm.
Bianhe Bridge is two of the main thoroughfares, the bridge is bustling with traffic, due to the popularity of the passers-by, the vendors do not lose time to occupy the road, some stalls, some sell food, there is a knife and scissors, ox-tail locks, and other small gold stalls, in order to make the goods more eye-catching, the stalls are designed to be slanted, so that the scene, has been extended to the bridge to form a characteristic of the trade zone.
The bridge was designed with a slant to make the goods more visible.
A boat under the bridge against the current, it seems to go to the mooring, the bow of the boatmen are trying to explore the depth of the river, because in the bridge to get the riverbed to generally place some large stones, so as to avoid the flow of water scouring the bridge sloping bank to prevent the collapse of the location where this position to move the boat to be particularly careful, so as not to stranded damage to the ship.
Not far upstream there have been a few boats in order to berth on the shore, the main channel has two boats sailing, scullers of the Bianjiang River horn and fiberglass workers of the pleased river horn two chorus of harmony echoed in the air, gradually far away, gradually far away, these humanities scene and the beautiful river and mountains form a beautiful customs picture, so some literati, dignitaries to find a good place in the buffer zone on the other side of the river bay. Merchants lost no time in placing two pleasure boats, so that they can drink wine and sing tea on them and enjoy the scenery of Bianhe River.
Then the past, the picture is outside the city's busy market business district, here is the middle of the Bianhe River dock and the city gate, especially conducive to trade activities, with no war for many years, the hotel and teahouse gradually developed, a variety of stores and stores, all kinds of car carries mules and horses busy, the picture is clear to see a carpentry workshop of the two craftsmen are in the process of rushing to make a mule and horse car, a corner street, a shipper rented a donkey, a mule and horse car, a mule and horse car. A shipper rents a donkey, packer is the ground on the goods on the pack, there is a lady is ready to rent a sedan chair to walk, and then look over is not a big labor square, but also into the city of the road must be, so business activities are frequent, a fortune-telling guru did not miss the opportunity to build a house here, looking for him to project the life of a lot of people in the fortune business is very prosperous. Crossing the bridge over the creek ditch in front of the foot line there are many laborers, some sitting down to rest, some dozing, there are simply lying down to rest, the foot line inside there are mules and horses also bolted there, it seems that they are in the energy so that after the business to come to work energetically, although there is no business to do but will not be coaxed to rob the business of others, is very much in compliance with the rules of the foot line, you look at the square on the business of the laborers is very good, one by one! Sedan chair has been up on the shoulders of the sedan chair, another sedan chair to be rented, a vendor on the bridge has been sold out of goods to go home, there are some households there are a few donkeys at the end of the bridge, there is a woman holding a child next to the house not far away from the laying of a few big fat pigs.
Labor Square is the turn of the moat bridge, business people do not lose time here on the vendors, a vendor set up rattan and bamboo woven baskets, this item is light and sturdy and durable, a lantern is a booming business, this item is bright and windproof after the lights and candles are lit, is a good partner in the night illumination, you see someone bought a turn around and was about to leave, the vendors again in the beck and call of another buyer, on the bridge! Pedestrians such as shuttle, the bridge on both sides of the barrier there are a lot of people to the river to watch, whether someone in the river to catch what big fish and so on. In front of the city gate, there is a stall more interesting, he is up half-stepping with a horseback rider, seemingly not to miss every pedestrian peddling his ghosts, behind a few people are also paying attention to his business trends, really a bit like the business of the child.
The city gate is tall and magnificent, a few camels slowly out of the city, this animal is not in the mainland, is a specialty of the Gobi Beach, is used as a means of transportation, should be the Western merchants to Bian Liang business, is the international trade in the Silk Road business groups.
Inside the city more a characteristic of a business seems to be another freight look, freight logistics has taken shape, next door is a perfumed oil processing workshop, perfumed oil sales situation is very good, there are carriages and horses to transport, and the source of goods is sufficient, it is the beginning of the scale of a building of a few floors of the inn, the guests in front of the guests bustling, inside the guests are also quite a lot of people, must be a big rich businessmen live, across the street, a store has a repair of face in the city is special attention to instrumentation, the city is a special attention to instrumentation, the city is the most important thing. Inside the city, special attention is paid to the instrument. City functions are really complete, food, clothing, housing and everything, a satin shop store is very wide, filled with colorful silk Jing Pal, visible at the time of sericulture and brocade quite developed, water business is also very good, the groundwater is like mineral water sweet and refreshing it. In this small part of the city there are two clinics, Wang Dafu is specialized in scrofula surgery, Zhao Da Cheng medical skills are more advanced, men, women, pediatrics are very proficient in a variety of pills and all kinds of complete, when the level of medical care is quite high.
From the direction of the inner city came a team of people, in front of an honorary battle to open the road, good wind, as they say, civil officials sitting in a sedan chair, military officials riding a horse, is indeed a military official, there are people behind him holding a sword. Another two people at the pier two hands pulling the chewing mouth, which is afraid of frightening the horse or lose front hooves the most effective way. Here in the picture with the front than the emergence of a discordant sound, how such a military officer can fight, pampered to this, the inner city of the civil and military officials, dignitaries do not know how, the painter felt it is really difficult to draw back, stop it!