Zhang Zeduan, with traditional scroll painting and meticulous composition, recreates the images of street life along the banks of the river in the southeast city of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival paints silk. The whole picture is 25cm high and 528cm long. There are more than 1000 people and 1000 animals in the picture. There are more than 20 boats and more than 20 cars moving on the river. In addition, The Painting Pavilion of Brothel, Embroidered Doors and Pearl Curtains, The City of a Foreign Country, The Fairy Pass of Land and Water, and Panoramic Scanning are the most authentic and vivid video records of Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty, which have extremely high artistic and historical values and are a custom documentary of the Song Dynasty version.
Why did Zhang Zeduan put so much effort into painting this picture? There may be many reasons, such as the painter's instinct to preserve the bustling scene of the world. But the most direct reason is that he wants to be appreciated by Song Huizong, who loves painting.
It is said that Zhang Zeduan once worked as a painter in Hanlin Painting Academy, so he knows Hui Zong's preferences very well. When Hui Zong saw this painting, he happily wrote five thin gold calligraphy paintings "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" on it, and stamped it with the scarlet seal of Shuanglong. Then he collected this painting in the Secret Palace. The disaster of Jingkang immediately occurred, which was not only the disaster of the Northern Song Dynasty, but also the nightmare of the Qingming Riverside Map.
The war turned the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty into ruins, and the riverside scene at Qingming Festival also fell into the hands of the aggressor Ren Jin. It is estimated that Jin Bing didn't realize the value of this painting, which made it quickly become a folk and was bought by a surviving intellectual in the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, this painting was created in Huizong period of Northern Song Dynasty, and its whereabouts are unknown. Some scholars have inferred that what we are seeing now is not the paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty, but the works redrawn by Zhang Zeduan when Dong Qichang, a great painter of the Ming Dynasty, held Lin 'an (Hangzhou) in the Southern Song Dynasty.
As soon as Zhang Zeduan's works symbolizing homesickness came out, they were widely concerned by painters in the Southern Song Dynasty, so many copies based on Zhang Zeduan's works appeared. Although these copies were out of homesickness at that time, they brought great trouble to future generations to identify the authenticity of this painting. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the riverside scene in Qingming Festival was full of drama. Participating in the solicitation or competition are Zhao, a famous painter in Yuan Dynasty, Li Dongyang, a great scholar in Ming Dynasty, and Yan Song, a traitor.