Along the River During the Qingming Festival: One of China's top ten famous paintings handed down from generation to generation. It is a genre painting of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is the only surviving masterpiece of the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan. It is a national treasure and is now stored in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Along the River During the Qingming Festival is 24.8 cm wide and 528.7 cm long, ink on silk. The work is in the form of a long scroll, using scattered perspective composition method, vividly recording the urban appearance of Tokyo (also known as Bianjing, today's Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty in China, and the living conditions of people from all walks of life at that time. It is the capital city of Bian during the Northern Song Dynasty. It is a testimony to the prosperity of Beijing in those days and also a portrayal of the urban economic situation in the Northern Song Dynasty.

This is unique in the history of painting in China and the world. In the five-meter-long scroll, he painted a large number of various characters, cattle, mules, donkeys and other livestock, carts, sedan chairs, large and small boats, houses, bridges, towers, etc. with their own characteristics, reflecting the architectural style of the Song Dynasty. feature. It has high historical value and artistic value. Although "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" has a lively scene, it does not show a prosperous city scene, but a "picture of prosperous and dangerous times" with a sense of worry, with lazy officers and soldiers and heavy taxes.

About the author: Zhang Zeduan (year of birth and death unknown), also known as Zhengdao. Han nationality, from Langye Dongwu (now Zhucheng, Shandong). A famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. His genre painting "Along the River During Qingming Festival" is one of the world's famous paintings and his representative work. He was eager to learn since he was a child. He traveled to Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) to study in his early years, and later studied painting.

When Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty worked at the Hanlin Academy of Painting, he specialized in boundary painting of palaces and palaces, and was especially good at painting boats, carriages, shops, bridges, streets, and city walls. Later, he "made a living by selling paintings after losing his place in the house, and wrote "West Lake Competition for Bid" and "Along the River During Qingming Festival". He was an outstanding realist painter in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Most of his works have been lost. The surviving paintings include "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and "Jinmingchi Bidding Picture", which are ancient Chinese art treasures.

Extended information:

Song Huizong and "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"

"Along the River During the Qingming Festival" can be called a rare treasure in the history of Chinese art, and has been copied by many later generations. , but as for the life experience of its author Zhang Zeduan, there is no historical record in the history books, and it has been an unsolvable mystery for thousands of years. Some experts and scholars believe that Zhang Zeduan was from the Northern Song Dynasty; some experts and scholars believe that Zhang Zeduan was from the Southern Song Dynasty; and some experts and scholars believe that Zhang Zeduan was from the Jin Dynasty.

Experts who believe that Zhang Zeduan was from the Southern Song Dynasty are mainly based on the speculation about "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by the calligrapher and painter Dong Qichang in the late Ming Dynasty in the "Rongtai Collection": "In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were many Westerners who copied the scenery of Bianjing. "Thoughts of Beauty." Sun Chengze of the Qing Dynasty recorded in "Gengzi's Summer Day": ""Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is a way for people in the Southern Song Dynasty to recall the prosperity of their hometown."

I think Zhang Zeduan is an expert in the views of the Jin Dynasty. , based on the fact that the earliest inscriptions and postscripts of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" were written by people from the Jin Dynasty, and Zhang Zeduan was not recorded in the painting academies of the Song Dynasty.

However, more experts and scholars believe that Zhang Zeduan was from the Northern Song Dynasty through research on "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". The "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and the "Three Editions of Shiqu Baoji" currently in the Palace Museum, the earliest inscription and postscript written by Zhang in the Jin Dynasty indicate Zhang Zeduan's identity as "Hanlin", and further pointed out that Zhang Zeduan studied in the capital, and his work His "boundary painting" is especially fond of Qiaoguo Trail in Zhouche City.

Zhang's inscription and postscript are the earliest and only record of Zhang Zeduan's life experience. It is impossible to verify who the Xiang he mentioned is, and Xiang's book "Comments on Pictures" has never been recorded, which leaves a broad space for research and verification by experts and scholars. However, according to the earliest inscriptions and postscripts of Zhang's works from the Jin Dynasty, the view that Zhang Zeduan was from the Northern Song Dynasty is the most convincing.

To this day, the story of Zhang Zeduan and "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is still circulated among the people in Kaifeng.

The Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng was built in the sixth year of Tianbao in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. By the Taizong period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Xiangguo Temple developed to its peak, covering an area of ??540 acres, with 64 monasteries, majestic pavilions, and lush flowers and trees. It is known as "the golden scenery shines brightly and the clouds disfigure the face". The huge carved beams and painted buildings of Xiangguo Temple require the services of a large number of painters.

Legend has it that in the Northern Song Dynasty, at Xiangguo Temple in present-day Kaifeng City, Tokyo, there lived some folk painters who made a living by painting temples. Among them was a young painter who said he could bring the bustling scene of the capital Tokyo to the temple. As for the painting, this young man is Zhang Zeduan from Zhucheng, Shandong.

Zhang Zeduan lived in Xiangji Kitchen in Xiangguo Temple and devoted himself to painting. One day, Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji of the Song Dynasty, escorted by the royal guards, came to Xiangguo Temple to offer incense in a grand manner. Zhao Ji heard that there was a talented young painter living in Xiangguo Temple, so he ordered Prime Minister Cai Jing to go and learn about the situation. Song Huizong Zhao Ji and Prime Minister Cai Jing not only liked painting, but were also masters of painting. Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, ordered Prime Minister Cai Jing to summon Zhang Zeduan to the Hanlin Painting Academy and personally commissioned Zhang Zeduan to paint the prosperous scene of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Zhang Zeduan was summoned to the Hanlin Painting Academy in the palace, but he proposed that he could not paint in the palace and asked to paint in a quiet farmhouse. Song Huizong Zhao Ji agreed to Zhang Zeduan's request and ordered Prime Minister Cai Jing to paint. For Zhang Zeduan, he found a quiet farmhouse on the outskirts of Tokyo, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. From then on, Zhang Zeduan devoted himself to painting under the stars and the moon. Who would have thought that such a prosperous scene of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty was actually created in a remote farmhouse on the outskirts of Tokyo.

When Prime Minister Cai Jing presented the scroll of Zhang Zeduan's painting to Song Huizong Zhao Ji, Song Huizong Zhao Ji was overjoyed to see Zhang Zeduan's painting.

From then on, "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" was included in the imperial palace by Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty.

After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Huizong Zhao Ji and his son Song Qinzong Zhao Huan were captured by the Jin soldiers and sent to the north. The "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and 6,000 works of art hidden in the palace of the Northern Song Dynasty were also looted by the Jin soldiers. The eleventh son of Song Huizong Zhao Ji, Song Gaozong Zhao Gou, proclaimed himself emperor in Hangzhou.

In order to prevent Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou from forgetting the hatred of their country and family, Zhang Zeduan resolutely resisted the Jin Dynasty, thanked guests behind closed doors, and worked hard. He also drew a long scroll called "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and dedicated it to Song Gaozong Zhao Gou. Unlike his father Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, was not interested in the painting at all and returned the painting. Zhang Zeduan unrolled the long scroll, and he couldn't calm down. In a fit of anger, he burned the long scroll of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" that he had painstakingly drawn. Fortunately, his family snatched half of it out in time. Under the heavy blow, Zhang Zeduan soon died of depression.

It is impossible to verify whether the story of Zhang Zeduan presenting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" twice is true, but according to legend, Zhang Zeduan was a painter who cared about the country and the people.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Along the River During the Qingming Festival

China.com - Song Huizong and "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"