Revealed: The five mysteries of the Famous Song Dynasty painting "Qingming On the River"

"Qingming On the River" is a famous painting of Zhang Zeduan of the Song Dynasty that every Chinese is familiar with. A few days ago, Professor Su Shengqian of Yunnan University appeared on CCTV's "Hundred Family Forum" to tell the story of "Reading the History of the Song Dynasty on the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty," which aroused people's renewed curiosity about the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" and their concern for the era of Zhang Zeduan's existence.

Which "Qingming River Map" is Zhang Zeduan's original work?

"Qingming Upper River Map" has been "competing to collect" in the Jin Dynasty, so there are not a few "cottage versions" in previous dynasties. The earliest clear record is that the mounting master mentioned in Yang Zhun's text behind the scroll used imitation books to steal beams and columns. Because the yuan rulers' ability to appreciate calligraphy and painting was weaker than that of Song and Jin, this painting was only placed in the secretary's prison. Later, a framed master replaced the original with a copy and stole the Qingming Upper River Map out of the palace. After the two men changed hands, they fell into the hands of Yang Zhun, a Jiangxi man living in Beijing. After Yang Zhunde painted, he returned to his hometown, remounted the painting, and wrote a text after the painting, recording the process of painting. Thus, the framed master in the Yuan Dynasty court was at least one of the authors of the early cottage version. In the Ming Dynasty, the "Qingming Upper River Map" had been in the folk collection for nearly two hundred years, and people had heard of this masterpiece and rarely saw it, so there were more speculations and imitations.

During the Yongzheng period, Prince Hongli of Heshuo bao, the later Qianlong Emperor, once received imitations close to the original Qingming Shanghe Tu. Although the level of writing poetry is not high, Hongli is quite accomplished in the appreciation of cultural relics. He felt that although the painting was very atmospheric, the connection between the front and back was not very smooth, and there were some shortcomings in the detail dynamics. So it was decided to recreate a more perfect "Qingming River Map". He organized five painters and copied and innovated the paintings. The new "Qingming Upper River Map" is clear and colorful, and the picture structure and the posture of some of the figures are similar to the original work, and it is speculated that the painters have seen a facsimile similar to the original work beforehand. The painting is now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, known as the "Qingyuan Ben".

The Kiyoin ben is nearly half the length of the real book, and there are more characters and more complicated streets. And because the drawing time is relatively close to now, the colors are also more colorful and very comfortable to look at. However, just a few decades after the completion of the new "Qingming Upper River Map", the Jiaqing Emperor obtained Zhang Zeduan's rare copy of the "Qingming Upper River Map" through the copy of the family, Jiaqing invited the Taishang Emperor Qianlong, and the grandfather and son understood at a glance that this was the real thing. However, for the sake of face, neither of them mentioned the matter of copying the facsimile "Qingming Shanghe Map", fortunately, they were preserving the editorial catalogue of calligraphy and paintings of the past dynasties for the court, named "Shiqu Baodi", so they stamped the beginning of Zhang Zeduan's authentic painting scroll with two seals of "Shiqu Baodi" and "Baodi Three Compilations", which was regarded as giving the authentic manuscript an official name. Therefore, today's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" collected by the Palace Museum is also known as the "Three Editions of Shiqu Baodi", which is identified by experts as Zhang Zeduan's original work.

Is the picture pictured in spring or autumn?

From the beginning of the "Qingming River Map", the trees in the picture are sparsely branched, the people in the painting wear long-sleeved clothes, and only a few laborers and people who rush to the road wear short sleeves or wrap their clothes around their waists. So is Zhang Zeduan painting in early spring or late autumn? There are three views on this issue.

Elder Meng of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote a book called "Tokyo Dream Hualu", recalling the prosperous scene of Beijing during the reign of Emperor Huizong. Researchers often use the contrast between "Tokyo Dream" and "Qingming River Map" to find answers. Most researchers believe that it is related to Qingming