Qingming Shanghe tu (Click this link to see the whole painting) is a painting with long 528cm, width 24.8cm, which was drawn by a painter in Northern Song Dynasty, and now this painting is placed at The Palace Museum ,which located in Beijing.
“Qingming” means 2 dynasties, and the painting showed a peaceful and flourishing society. It depicts the scenes along the Bian Canal and around the southeast gate of Bianjing (Bianjing was the capital of the Northern Song dynasty and this place is named Kaifeng now).
This long painting included 3 parts. The beginning is from right-hand end to the left, as you can see from the above link of Qingming Shanghe tu, the first part portrays the thatched cottages, paths crisscrossing fields, and the farm life in the suburbs. At the center of this part is a stand of ancient willow trees, the functions of planting these willow trees are for secure the embankments of canals. They also implied of caring of the government.
The Second part is a grand arching bridge as its center, which depicts commerce along the Bian Canal. The wooden bridge on this part was invented in Qingzhou, Shandong province in 1031-1032, and was built over the Bian Canal during the 1040s, which linking water and land transportation. Beneath the bridge, you can see a large boat was lowering its mast in order to continue its journey upstream.
The last part of this painting depicts the street in the urban area which located at the centerpeice of the city gate with a camel train passing beneath. Shops are dense: there were some big shops and small shops, the big shops like hotels are ornamented with decorative scaffolding; small shops are hardly more than shacks. Besides, you can also see a government office and the buddish temple in this painting.
Furthermore, the crowds of the pedestrains jostle each other, different identities and attires were showed in this painting. As you can see like gentlemen, officials, servants, peddlers, sedan-chair bearers, bakers, shopkeepers..etc..even beggars. In ancient china, the identities were very important. The main vehicles for transportation were sedan chair, wheelbarrows, train of camels, ox-, horse- and donkey-drawn carts.
This painting showed the details of the life in both urban and suburs areas and the brilliant constructions. You can see what they were doing on this painting if you look at it carefully. The feeling is so real~and I was amazing when I saw this painting!!! That’s why it is one of the precious important painting in Mainland China.
Source:
Yang Xin. Life along the Bian River at the Pure Brightness Festival
(Qingming Shanghe tujuan). Retrieved October 15, 2007 from
