Along the River during Qingming Festival

August 29, 2024 8:01 AM

In a painting nearly one thousand years old, shopkeepers tend their stores, teahouses serve customers, and camels pass through the city gates. Although the trees have yet to sprout new leaves, boats are moored along the river as the city springs to life. In the painting (…) we are offered a rare glimpse of the thriving commercial activity of medieval China.

more images and analysis here

an animated version as shown in an exhibition several years ago

building a reproduction of the Rainbow Bridge

Prof Ebrey at UW has pulled out: shops and commerce, means of transportation, individual figures on the street.

bonus European comparison

posted by bq (7 comments total)

The animated version is now on permanent display in Taipei at the National Palace Museum. Saw it this spring and loved it!!!
posted by quiet wanderer at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2024 [4 favorites]

That giant animated version is so cool, like a modern version of the 19th century panoramas inside buildings.
posted by gwint at 8:57 AM on August 29, 2024

What I like so much about this painting is that it reminds me of Richard Scarry's books, where you'd have an overview of a town and an illustration of all the little people (animals) doing their work. There's something so humanizing and positive about a painting like this--it's bragging, yes, look at us with our mercantile wealth!--but it's also reflecting a joy in living in such a busy place at such a busy time. Hogarth tries to capture something similar in his bustling and opinionated work, but as much as I love him, he would never have been capable of such a vast panorama. You really get a sense of an entire world of people in this painting, a way of cataloging roles and connections and movements. I feel like there's still room for this kind of art, and I wish I knew someone who was doing it--art that is sociological, economic, and somehow comprehensive, an art-of-everything.
posted by mittens at 9:11 AM on August 29, 2024 [12 favorites]

this is beautiful!

Chinese Busy Town awwwww. When I think about Medieval China (a period with which I have a tiny bit of familiarity) vast panorama is kind of exactly what comes to mind.
posted by supermedusa at 11:04 AM on August 29, 2024 [1 favorite]

And then there's the modern update: https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1647757/mainland-internet-users-help-modern-take-classic-chinese-painting
posted by edselford at 3:27 PM on August 29, 2024

This post reminds me that I started reading a mystery novel called "清明上河图密码" The-Along-the-River-during-Qingming-Festival Code" a couple of years ago but lost track of it, but now I see that a TV series based on the novel is coming out this year!
posted by of strange foe at 11:13 AM on August 30, 2024

Bought a copy of this in book form back in 2017, it was about £38, *mazon tell me it is about £58 today.
posted by epo at 12:20 PM on August 30, 2024