Along the River During Qingming Festival: Attitudes and Worth

(simplified Chinese: 清明上河图; pinyin: *Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú*) was painted by Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145). It is one of the top ten famous painting in China. It
includes the appearance and the life of people in the capital of Song Dynasty, Bianjing. Zhang Zeduan was a famous painter of Song Dynasty and he prefer to portray buildings, trees, and characters. People have different attitudes towards this
painting over the centuries and it is really expensive.

### Attitudes of past

People in ancient
time had various attitudes towards *Along*
the River*. When Zeduan Zhang worked at Hanlin Academy, he first drew the*
painting from AD 1111 to 1125. He then offered the painting to Emperor Huizong
named Zhao Ji after finishing it. Zhao Ji was also a famous calligrapher and he highly treasured Zeduan Zhang’s painting. Zhao Ji
used his own writing style to write five characters, “清明上河图”,
which was the Chinese name of *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, and also set his seal to the painting (The
Authentic). About eight hundred years ago, Zhang Gongyao, who was the first
person to define the theme of the painting, claimed that the painting presented
all the positive affairs during the dominate of emperor Huizong. However, about
650 years ago, Li Qi refused this claim and he argued that the painting
actually portrayed the contrary side of the prosperous capital and the hard
life of common people. (Specialist).

### Attitudes of nowadays

Nowadays, most of the
people highly commend *Along the River*.
In 2015, the Research Office Chief of Palace Museum, Yu Hui was interviewed and
said that the painting was full of history meaning. Yu said that although the
scenes in the painting were hilarious, it was present an inflammatory world
with a sense of urgency instead of a prosperity world. A Chinese specialist,
Marc F. Wilson, who is the director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in
Kansas City Mo, stated that *Along the*
River *is possibly the one that is widely known in China. He also said that*
the counterpart of this painting is Mona Lisa. Ringo Lau, who had studied the “*Along the River*”, said that the painting
is detailed, colorful, and astonishing (Bradsher). University of Hong Kong art
historian Yeewan Koon thought the painting illustrate Chinese perfect innovations
in architecture and engineering of that era, which could be proved by the timber
bridge without piers and boats created to transport stuffs and citizens. Maxwell
Hearn, director of Chinese painting at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art,
even said that *Along the River* was
the ambassador for Chinese culture (Seno).

### Worth from visitors

The worth of *Along the River* could be presented by
how many visitors it has been attracting. In 2003, the painting was exhibited
in Shanghai and visitors drew a quarter-mile line outside the museum. The same
situation was happening in Shenyang, China, in 2005. In 2007, Chinese government
sent *Along the River* to Hong Kong and
it was exhibited at Hong Kong Museum of Art through July 22. Visitors passed
through large reproductions and texts of the painting before seeing the real *Along the River* and they were only
permitted to see the painting for five minutes because of the high volume of
visitors (Bradsher). In 2015, visitors waited for up to 10 hours outside the
Palace Museum to see *Along the River*.
Although viewers were allowed to see the painting a few minutes, they still
thought it was worth it. One Beijing citizen, Ms.
Jacqueline Zhang, went to Palace Museum at 5 in the morning to stand at
the head of the line. According to Museum office, about three thousand visitors
came to the exhibition a day (Song Dynasty).

### Worth from reproduction

Many reproductions of
*Along the River* have been produced
because the worth of it. The painting provoked some of court artists in Yuan,
Ming, and Qing Dynasty to create re-interpretive versions. Qing Court Version was the famous; it was drawn by five Qing
Dynasty court artists, Chen
Mei, Sun Hu, Jin Kun, Dai Hong, and Cheng Zhidao. This version was even published
on books, made into a documentary, and printed on postcards (Along the River). One of the known electronic reproduction was the animated 3D reproduction, displaying at the Chinese pavilion of Shanghai World
Expo in 2010 (Lucarelli). This fascinating 3D *Along the River* then inspired another person to make reproduction. The
president of Jingyu Mantang jadeite carving workshop,
Mr. Fang, said that he could not find a proper theme for a huge piece of
jadeite until he saw the 3D painting of *Along*
the River *at Shanghai World Expo in 2010. The huge piece of jadeite would*
be sculpted into a jadeite Shan Zi, a three-dimensional carving of a jadeite,
and it might be the largest jadeite Shan Zi in Asia and worth several million
Yuan (Tsu).

### Works Cited

“Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, *Comuseum*.

Bradsher, Keith. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/arts/design/03pain.html “China’s Mona Lisa’ Makes a Rare Appearance in
Hong Kong”], *The New York Time.*

Hsu, Tao and Lucas, Andrew. “The Spirit of Jadeite Carving”, *Gia*. 18 June 2014.

Lucarelli, Fosco. [http://socks-studio.com/2015/02/08/along-the-river-during-the-qingming-festival-by-zhang-zeduan-12th-century-and-an-18th-century-remake/ “Along the River During the Qingming
Festival by Zhang Zeduan (12th]

Century) and an 18th Century Remake”, *Socks-studio*.

Seno, Alexandra. “A Rare Look at ‘China’s Mona Lisa’”, *Newsweek*.

“Song Dynasty Scroll a Hit in Beijing”, *The Straits Time.*

“Specialist: *Along the River During Qingming Festival* is an alarming painting”, “专家:《清明

[http://news.163.com/15/0922/09/B4 河图》为盛世危图
官兵懒散税务重”], *News.163.*

“The Authentic of Along the River During the
Qingming Festival Actually Has Two”, “《清明上

河图》真迹其实有两幅”, “Qingming
Shanghe Tu Zhenji Qishi You Liangfu”, *Ifeng.*