page_title: Dongjing Meng Hua Lu
section_title: Qingming Festival
hierarchical_section_title: Dongjing Meng Hua Lu / Qingming Festival
caption_attribution_description: Portion of the Chinese cityscape handscroll Along the River During Qingming Festival, ink and colors on silk, 25.5 × 525 cm.
context_page_description: Dongjing meng Hua lu or The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor, is a memoir written by Meng Yuanlao. In 1126, Meng was made a refugee from Kaifeng, the thriving capital of the Northern Song Dynasty after Jurchen Jin invaders conquered northern China and forced the withdrawal of the Song court to the temporary capital, Hangzhou, in the south, then known as Lin'an. Meng's book is a detailed and nostalgic description of the old capital's urban life, seasonal products, and festivals, as well as foods, customs, and traditions. In later dynasties, the book was much imitated and taken as an authoritative picture of affluent Chinese culture.
  Nothing else is known of the author, evidently a minor government official, except that he lived in Bianjing between the ages of 13 and 27 before escaping to the south. His book was first printed in 1187, but the Preface is dated 1147, a number of years after the capital was moved, indicating that Meng started a draft at this point. The work was published in 10 volumes and traditional bibliographers classified it as travel writing. It is often cited under the abbreviated name, Meng Hua lu.
context_section_description: The section in Book 7 describing  Spring festival has been used to explain one of China's most famous scroll paintings, the Qingming Shanghe tu (清明上河圖) of Zhang Zeduan (張擇端), which was taken as depicting the Spring Festival:
  The new graves are visited on this day and cleaned, the people of the capital (Bianjing) go to the suburbs ...... When they return in the evening, wear all muted flat pancakes, clay figures, toy knives, precious flowers, exotic fruits, toy models made of clay (landscapes, buildings, people, etc.), (lucky) game accessories, duck eggs or chicks with him, call the they are "gifts from outside the (city) gates." Litters are decorated with various flowers and willow branches, all four sides are covered."
caption: Qingming Shanghe Tu Street scene: teahouses, restaurants, vendors, homes.
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