A dynasty goes down in history because of a painting; a painting is also famous because of a dynasty.
Speaking of the Song Dynasty, it is impossible not to mention the "Qingming River Map". This huge picture scroll, which is several meters long, shows the busy transportation and street market trading in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. Boats, houses, shops, stalls, wine flags, carriages, horses, and pedestrians are vividly in sight, and the prosperity on both sides of the Bian River jumps on the paper, showing the majestic momentum and prosperity of the capital city of the Song Dynasty. Successive princes and nobles have all been overwhelmed by the dreamy prosperity and auspiciousness of the paintings, as well as leisure and elegance, and thus competed to collect the "Qingming River Map".
Part of Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty"
About the Author of "Qingming On the River Map":
Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145), a native of Dongwu (present-day Zhucheng, Shandong), studied in Dongwu (present-day Zhucheng, Shandong), studied in the capital city of Bieliang, and later studied painting, specializing in the palace of painting, specializing in painting boats, cities, bridges, streets, and chengguo, and became one of the members of the Calligraphy and Painting Academy of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. In addition to painting "Qingming On the River", Zhang Zeduan also has the "West Lake Winning Map" depicting the grand situation of the dragon boat race in Jinmingchi in Beijing during the Qingming Festival, which is also a picture of the secular life at that time.
The main contents of the "Qingming River Map":
"Qingming On the River Map" in the form of a long scroll, using the composition method of scattered perspective, the complex scenery into the unified and changeable picture scroll, there are more than 500 characters, more than 50 livestock, more than 20 boats, cars, more than 30 houses and buildings, can be described as rich in content, complex and complex, the composition is dense, the plot is vivid, rich in a strong sense of rhythm and rhythm, is a valuable historical material for studying the economic and social life of the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The whole volume of "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" can be divided into three sections, the first section is the rural scenery on the outskirts of Beijing; the middle section is centered on the "Hongqiao", depicting the busy scene of handicrafts and commercial trade on the Bian River and the transportation of vehicles and boats on both sides of the strait, and the houses, ships, and trees in the painting are staggered and orderly, which is the center of the whole volume; the third section is the streets crisscrossing inside and outside the city gate, bustling shops, and bustling cars and horses, and these intricate scenes are handled just right.
The scale of the whole volume is grand, the structure is rigorous, the composition is undulating and orderly, the pen and ink skills are sophisticated and mature, and the color settings are elegant and light. The characters are vividly conveyed, livestock forms, houses, castles, bridges, boats, trees, rivers, etc., the depiction is exquisite and in place, reproducing the prosperity and development of the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty, not only an outstanding painting work, but also has a strong historical value of historical documents.
Historical background of "Qingming River Map":
The emergence of "Qingming Upper River Map" is the result of the long-term development of figure painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the growth of new economic factors, in people's ideological consciousness, there has been a growing interest in real secular life, civic literature has also been developed, "Qingming On the River Map" and citizen literature, but also shows the ordinary daily life, as well as the city people, peddlers and pawns busy daily life of great interest. The theme of "Qingming on the River" depicts the rich street scene of the Northern Song Dynasty, which conforms to the direction of historical development and thus expresses the true height of history.
In history, the Bian River has played a huge role in social and economic development. The Beihe River is the northern end of a canal excavated during the Sui Dynasty. The political and economic links of the canal have accelerated the process of civilization in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins. Bieliang on the Bian River was used as a commercial town, but also a political and military stronghold – the capital of the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty.
"Qingming Upper River Map" Appreciation:
The "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" takes the Beihe River as the object of depiction, which has great historical documentary value. "Qingming Upper River Map" is colored on silk, length: 24.8 cm, width: 528.7 cm. "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" depicts the bustling and crowded scenes on the Beihe River in the Capital City during the Qingming Dynasty.
With unremitting efforts and careful observation, Zhang Zeduan made a precise and detailed description of the bustling markets on dongmen street and dongmenwai river in the Northern Song Dynasty. In addition to large shops such as liquor stores and medicine shops, there are also incense shops, bow shops, tea shops at intersections, or liquor shops, pawn shops with signs with the word "xie" hanging in front of the eaves, carpenters who make wheels, blacksmiths who sell knives and scissors, pickers who sell peach blossoms, and various vendors. There are also fortune tellers who walk the rivers and lakes, and they can be identified one by one.
There were also all kinds of figures on the streets, with officials riding horses, huddled forward and backward, and passing through the crowd, while women sat in small palanquins. In this disturbed street market, some people are carrying burdens, and some people are taking cars. There are also various styles of carriages and horses, some people take boats, and some people come out to play in the Qingming Season, looking out at the railing on the side of the road at the city gate. The scenery on the streets is infinite, and Zhang Zeduan has made a methodical arrangement, which is intricate but shows a fascinating historical picture.
If these exquisite depictions can be counted as a faithful record of reality to some extent, then the most wonderful fragment is Zhang Zeduan's meticulous painting of the exquisitely structured "rainbow bridge".
According to the Song Dynasty's "Tokyo Dream Record", this rainbow bridge is described, saying that there are no pillars under it, but a huge wooden frame. The structure of this bridge is said to have been invented by Chen Xiliang, the governor of Suzhou, and it is also said that it was invented by the guards of Qingzhou. In short, this rainbow bridge on the Bian River is also a highlight of the "Qingming River Map".
Through a variety of different behaviors and activities, "Qingming on the River Map" organizes various images to form a complete picture, excavates the poetry and distance in life, and thus sublimates the paintings derived from life to the height of art.
As the scroll of "Qingming on the River" gradually unfolded, the boats that had just transported grain, oil, rice and noodles and other property from Jiangnan came in an stream, and the tense scene of the huge boats passing through the Hongqiao changed the way of laying out directly before, forming a climax; on the boat and on the bridge, there were many people busy and noisy. Boats and bridges became centers of hecticism and tension. Zhang Zeduan is good at capturing the details of life, discovering exciting focal points and plots in the connection and movement of things, and expressing life with vivid images.
The "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" uses similar techniques to express the skill of boating, as well as a camel caravan that shows enough to illustrate the economic relationship between Bieliang and the north of the Bian River. They are walking through the bustle of people and horses in the painting, which makes a strong impression on the picture.
In the whole volume of "Qingming On the River Map", there are also some vivid pictures. Zhang Zeduan made a concentrated and vivid summary of the complicated social life. Although they are all ordinary and ordinary trivial things in life, because they are all brightly colored and rich in meaning in the theme, they are widely displayed, so that the life of the active capital city of the market can be reproduced by art.
Artistic value of "Qingming On the River Map":
Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" depicts the life scene of all social strata in the Qing Dynasty along the Capital City and the suburbs along the Fenjing River and in the suburbs during the Qing Dynasty during the Northern Song Dynasty with rigorous and delicate brushwork, which is real and vivid, and is an excellent character custom painting with important historical value. The "Qingming River Map" depicts more than 500 characters, more than 50 livestock, more than 20 cars and boats of various kinds, many houses, countless props, huge scenes, clear paragraphs, strict structure, and orderly. The technique is skillful, the pen is meticulous, the lines are strong, and the solemn and sophisticated. It reflects a high degree of pure painting skills and outstanding artistic achievements. At the same time, because the painting is a social record of the time, it provides important historical information for future generations to understand and study the urban social life of the Song Dynasty.
The Concise Encyclopedia Britannica evaluates the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty", which is a long scroll of customs with important historical value, and the painter successfully depicts the life scenes of various strata of society in and around the capital city during the Qingming Dynasty. The main manifestations are workers and small citizens. The treatment of the interrelationship between people, buildings, vehicles, trees, and water flows is very clever, the sense of wholeness is very strong, and it has great historical value. Since then, the urban genre paintings painted by successive generations have all been influenced by it.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, there were many facsimiles of the "Qingming Upper River Map" that were popularly sold in the painting market. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the remnants of Nandu remembered the prosperity of the capital of the old country, and they were also copied and circulated. The original works painted by Zhang Zeduan can eventually be collected at the Palace Museum in Beijing, which has also experienced many twists and turns. It is said that after the Jingkang Rebellion, other paintings collected by the imperial family were plundered by the Jin people. When the Qing Dynasty fell, Puyi smuggled cultural relics such as the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" out of the palace, and established a puppet state of Manchukuo under the support of the Japanese. As a result, this famous painting was brought to Changchun again, and has been passed down to this day, becoming a surviving masterpiece of real life portrayal of the prosperous scene of the Song Dynasty.
History has long spanned nearly a thousand years, but unfortunately, the prosperous Kaifeng City in the "Qingming Upper River Map" has long been buried underground for hundreds of years, with the fiasco of the Battle of The Mountain, the prosperity and elegance of the Great Song Dynasty have also faded with the wind, and later people can only look for the prosperity of the Great Song Dynasty from the historical fragments depicted in the "Qingming Upper River Map".
To this day, the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" still continues to evoke people's memories of the prosperous scene of the Song Dynasty.