Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a world-class painting
It vividly depicts China’s urban civilization 1,000 years ago
In a 5m-long roll
My name is Xue Fengxuan
I study Chinese cities
From the earliest cities 5,000 years ago
To the modern cities
Speaking of cities in the Song Dynasty
You can’t ignore Along the River During the Qingming Festival
The painting is too complicated
So I just picked over 200 important details
At the beginning of the painting
The first area is the agriculture area
You can see the fields and the suburbs
It supplied vegetables and meat
The second area contains the port, warehouse and wharf
You can see the stevedores moving bags of goods
From the ships to the shore
After crossing the bridge
You’re really close to the inner part
You can see big restaurants
And high-class hotels
You can also see the fancy houses of officials
Bianjing marks a significant turning point in the history of Chinese urban development
Before the Northern Song Dynasty, ordinary people could only shop in official markets
But street walls were removed in the Song Dynasty
Then markets appeared along the streets and rivers, and even on bridges
And they ran all day as needed
After the sunset
There were the cases written with signs
They were made from white and thin paper
And having a big candle inside
They are similar to the neon lights today
The government had a rule
That private business, small retailers and stall vendors were not taxed
You can see vendors of medicines, iron knives, iron scissors and steamed buns
It was a busy market
It also depicts restaurants in big, medium, and small sizes
They were under a strict and standard administration
Zheng Dian was a big restaurant
The government issued a special license to it
To make and sell wine
Sun Yang Zheng Dian mainly sold mutton
But it had good wine as well
Zhi Deng meant the restaurant had hostesses
However
A Jiao Dian didn’t offer hostess service
The second-class restaurants couldn’t make or sell wine
There were over 300 state-owned wells in the city
4 people could fetch water at a well at the same time
The men fetching water
They all wore same clothes
Which indicates the existence of a water-fetching company
Bianjing was a developed city
In urban construction
Industrial and commercial activities and science and technology
You can see a charcoal store in the painting
There were several dozen wholesalers
The majority of people in Bianjing used coal
Which is at least 500 years earlier than the westerners
Iron was used in ships as rivets
You can also see a small stall beneath the bridge
It sold small domestic iron tools
So iron articles were quite common in China then
Our bridge experts spent several dozen years
Studying the construction of the Hong bridges but failed
Later they found out the answer
In Along the River During the Qingming Festival
Lots of Japanese scholars also studied the ships in Along the River During the Qingming Festival
The ship association also published a book about it
They also said that without Along the River During the Qingming Festival
They couldn’t understand how developed the sailing technology was in the Song Dynasty
It’s a great painting
Every Chinese should go to see and appreciate it
It’s a pleasure
You will find the painting is full of surprises