Why is "Qingming Riverside Drawing" named after "Qingming"? There have been different interpretations. One says that it depicts the scene of Bianjing Kaifeng City at the time of Qingming; one says that "Qingming" is the name of the neighborhood in Bianjing, and the picture depicts the scene on the west bank of the Bianhe River from Qingmingfang in Bianjing to Hongqiao in Bianjing; and one says that "Qingming" is commonly used in the traditional Chinese society as a symbol of "peaceful and prosperous world". Peaceful and prosperous" words of praise. So, what exactly is the explanation?
The whole picture of "Qingming Riverside Drawing" can be divided into three paragraphs, first of all, the scenery of the outskirts of Bianjing, mist and sparse forests, willows, vegetable gardens, thatched roofs, and merchants, travelers, shuttling back and forth. The middle section depicts the busy scene on both sides of the Bianhe River, the river, cargo ships, arched bridges and rainbows, pedestrians, roads, traders gathered. The latter part is a portrait of downtown streetscape, towering city buildings, restaurants and tea houses, dense stores, traffic, all walks of life, business is booming. Taste carefully, the picture of the three religions and nine streams, all inclusive, each God-shaped, extremely interesting. The whole work is long but not redundant, busy but not chaotic, tight and compact, a breath of fresh air. Especially in the section of the painting "Rainbow Bridge", the bustling atmosphere of the street market scene comes to the viewer as if they were there, experiencing the culture and customs of the Song Dynasty society. The technique is highly appreciated by the world, and it is breathtaking.
The Qingming Riverside Scroll at the Forbidden City in Beijing is not signed by Huizong's "Qingming Riverside Scroll" in thin gold, so the word "Qingming" was first used in the Jin Dynasty in the twenty-sixth year of the Dading period (1186) in the inscription of Zhang Zhuo, who quoted from Xiang's Review of Pictures and Paintings, saying that Zhang Zeduan had made a "Qingming Riverside Scroll". According to Zhang Zeduan, Zhang Zeduan made "Qingming Riverside Drawing" and "West Lake Scramble Drawing", so the name of the drawing was determined. After years of debate among scholars about the interpretation of "Qingming", there are three different opinions.
One says that the picture depicts the scene of Bianjing Kaifeng City at the time of Qingming, i.e. the spring scenery of Bianjing at the time of Qingming Festival. The Ming Dynasty Li Rihua "flavor water Xuan diary" said that this picture Song Huizong had inscribed a poem, the poem has "such as in the spring of the river" sentence, it can be seen that depicts the early spring of Bianjing. Modern Zheng Zhenduo and other people more big "Qingming Festival" said: "the time is the time of Qingming, that is, the spring March 3." The specific days are set. According to the Song Dynasty documents, people in the Qingming Festival around the time of the ban on fireworks, door on the sedan chair inserted willow, and then flocked out of the city to sweep the graves and trekking in the countryside, friends and relatives get together, singing, dancing, drinking and playing until dusk to return to the city, and so on. So, "Qingming Shanghe Tu" in the content of these?
Scholars have pointed out that the picture of the scene of the weather performance and the living conditions of the characters, obviously with the "Qingming" season is clearly inconsistent. Many parts of the picture show the heat of the Central Plains in the early fall, rather than the spring chill of the Qingming season. Such as a corner of the painting painted on the vendor's table with a cut watermelon, such as the Qingming Festival, Henan area where the watermelon? And then the figure in the picture holding a fan up to more than ten people, and the northern part of the Qingming season of spring temperature is obviously not consistent. Especially in the painting there are some children playing on both sides of the road, because the heat is unbearable and naked, very lively and natural, such as in the Qingming Festival, the children are naked will freeze. In a corner of the picture, there is an eggplant-like crop growing in the short hedge of a farmer's house, which seems to be ripening in autumn. The weeping willows in front of Zhao Taeseung's house are already in full bloom and are not the willows of early spring. Stores in the picture, a variety of stores in front of almost all customers, quite lively; only the paper horse store in front of the courtyard is cold, no customer patronage, can not see the shadow of the Qingming local customs of the graves of ancestors. And a hotel near the river, in the banner written on the strip "new wine" two words, which is to tell people that it was "mid-autumn" season. In short, if the author wanted to express the theme of "Qingming Festival", he would not have handled the picture in this way.
Some scholars have refuted this, pointing out that Kaifeng did not use fans before and after the Qingming Festival and did not use them during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Examined from the social customs, then there are "Bo fan the most, to the summer of near also" situation, that is, in the Qingming Festival, people to fan for gambling, used to promote the fan. Then look at the watermelon, the block in the picture is not a watermelon, before the Northern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains people are not familiar with the watermelon, and did not grow watermelon. On the issue of new wine, Tokyo Meng Hua Lu says, "Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, all the stores sold new wine." But of the several hotels in the painting, only one has a banner that says "New Wine". Besides, wine could be made all year round, so the hotels could sell new wine or old wine at any time. The most obvious thing is that in the picture, there are more than 170 trees, among which the willow trees are all fine leaves and buds, while the other trees are bare, which is exactly the scene before and after the Qingming Festival. If around the mid-autumn festival, all the trees would be full of leaves and branches, and would never be bare. On the road in the countryside in the picture, two old men riding a donkey, wearing a hood, and a few bare-shouldered children into a contrast, indicating that the old man still feel the spring cold is not yet over, it is the time of the Qingming Festival. In short, from the picture scenery, the picture is not painted in the Mid-Autumn Festival, should be the Qingming Festival, of course, not necessarily in March 3rd. "On the river" of the "on", according to the custom of the Song people. It refers to the meaning of going to or going to the river, and "going up the river" means going to the Bianhe River. During the Qingming Festival, people in Tokyo went up to the river to enjoy the scenery of Bianhe River and both sides of the river, and the situation was very spectacular with "dozens of miles of canal boats in Bianhe River in spring", which was of some special significance. Zhang Zeduan's customary paintings choose this time of the year, and the title of the paintings is named after this, which should also be unique.
It is said that "Qingming" is the name of the neighborhood in Bianjing, which means the name of the painting is based on the name of the place. At that time, the inner and outer city of Bianjing and its suburbs were divided into more than 130 workshops, and the eastern suburb of the outer city was divided into three workshops, and the first workshop was Qingming workshop. The first one is Qingmingfang, and the first one is Qingmingfang, and the first one is Qingmingfang, and the first one is Qingmingfang, and the first one is Qingmingfang, and the first one is Qingmingfang, and the first one is Qingmingfang.
Dissenters believe that the starting point of the existing painting is a small road in the suburbs of Bianjing, not a neighborhood. According to the "Qingming Riverside Drawing" the title of the relevant trek contained in the original piece of the imperial pen of Emperor Huizong signed and stamped with the imperial seal of the real painting, the content of the painting is very large, from the Bianjiang River, more than ten miles outside of the East Watergate of the countryside, has been painted in the city of the palace, and not only Qingming Square to the west bank of the Bianjiang River in the Hongqiao this distance. Qingmingfang is only a very small place name, the painter of this work is an important gift to the emperor, should not choose this small place name as the name of a picture of such a grand work. Scholars also pointed out that, from the "Tokyo Meng Hua Lu" books reflect, people have been customarily used more street name to call a region or a building location, rather than the name of the neighborhood. This point Zhang Zeduan should be clear, so such as "Qingmingfang" to name this painting, not to say that people outside of Tokyo do not understand its meaning, that is, people in the city of Tokyo may not be able to know. What's more, the painting depicts the cityscape of Tokyo actually belongs to which part of the debate is also very different. For example, some people think that it is located inside and outside the East Watergate of the new city of Tokyo to the southeast of the old city, some people think that all the Hongqiao up and down the East Watergate, and some people think that it should be located inside and outside the old city of the East corner of the door, or generalized that it is the outskirts of the city of Bianjing Bianjiang River to the city market. In fact, no matter how realistic it reflects the cityscape of Tokyo, since it is a work of art, there is bound to be reality and exaggeration. So it is difficult to establish the claim that this picture is so magnificent, mainly in the painting of a neighborhood.
The term "Qingming" is commonly used in traditional Chinese societies as a term of praise for "peaceful times". The poem "Poetry - Daya - Da Ming" says: "Wreak havoc on the great merchants, will be clear and bright." Mao Chuan: "The world is clear and bright without honoring the dynasty." After the Han Book - Ban Gu biography: "solid fortunate to have been born in a clear and bright world." It can be seen that the original meaning of "clear and bright" is to refer to the smoothness of the rule, and often praised the prosperous world. Zhang Zeduan first painted this painting, in the Northern Song Dynasty Emperor Huizong Xuanhe years, at that time, although the social crisis, in the eve of the turmoil, but on the surface is still singing and dancing, the capital is prosperous, inside and outside the court, into the praise of the "clear and bright". Jin Dynasty connoisseurs wrote the trek said: "through the streets and horses are noisy, it is the first years of Xuanhe, when Hanlin presented painting, Chengping style is worth passing on." Which has pointed out that the theme of this painting is to show the Song dynasty "peace and prosperity", and "Qingming" is "peace and prosperity", "peace and prosperity" synonym. and "Qingming" is synonymous with "peace" and "peace". The name of this eye-catching painting was naturally appreciated by Emperor Huizong. The style of ancient hall painting and calligraphy Huikao "recorded" figure into the silk Xi Hall, the imperial pen inscription labeled volume". After the Jingkang disaster, the painter was exiled in Hangzhou, Southern Song Dynasty, looking back to the north, evoking national hatred and hatred of the family, adore the scenery of the former capital, and then painted the "Qingming Riverside Drawing", in order to send their own patriotic feelings.
Those who hold different views pointed out that, on the one hand, Zhang Zeduan this painting in the praise of the late Northern Song Dynasty for the "peace and prosperity", "clear politics", on the one hand, Zhang Zeduan painted in Kaifeng, the painting of "Riverside Scene at Qingming City" no longer exists, the existing On the one hand, it is said that Zhang Zeduan's painting "Qingming Riverside" in Kaifeng no longer exists, and that the painting now in the Forbidden City in Beijing was painted by Zhang when he went south to Hangzhou after suffering the disaster of Jingkang, and the two seem to be not quite harmonized. Zhang Zeduan was an obscure painter who remained in the Song dynasty, and with such skill he did not have a high official position in the Academy of Letters, presumably a figure who refused to conform to the upper echelons of the feudal hierarchy. Especially in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, when the anti-Jin faction criticized Cai Jing and the other "six thieves" for making a mess of Northern Song politics, thus bringing about the destruction of the country and the family, would a patriotic painter sing the praises of that time as if it were a time of peace and prosperity? Of course, whether Zhang Zeduan to Hangzhou, also can not be determined. The main point is that this is a painting of the social customs or scenery of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty, not a piece of political propaganda to promote a clear rule.
The naming of the painting seems to be as elusive as its authenticity. Experts are expected to make another in-depth study with a view to making new breakthroughs.