Zhang Zeduan, a famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, painted the immortal masterpiece The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which is priceless in the painting history of China. It is a long scroll genre painting created by realistic means, which vividly reproduces the prosperous scene of Bianjing Chengping period in the Northern Song Dynasty through a detailed description of street life.
Zhang Zeduan, a native of Wu Dong (now Zhucheng, Shandong Province), was a painter at the turn of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was written by Zhang Zeduan when he was making history at Hanlin Painting Academy in Song Huizong. This long scroll is made of silk and light color. The frame is 24.8 cm high and 528.7 cm long. It is a long scroll genre painting created by highly realistic means, which vividly reproduces the prosperous scene of Bianjing Shengping period in the Northern Song Dynasty through a detailed description of street life.
After Zhang Zeduan finished this long scroll praising the history of the Millennium, he first presented it to Song Huizong. Song Huizong became the first collector of this painting. As a master of calligraphy and painting in the history of China, Song Huizong loved this painting very much. He wrote the words "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" with his famous "Shoujin Style" and carved a small seal of Ssangyong (today).
This masterpiece, which is well-known at all times and at home and abroad, has been appreciated by countless collectors and connoisseurs for more than 800 years after its publication, and is the goal of later emperors and dignitaries. It went from one place to another and experienced many wars and disasters ... It entered the palace five times and was stolen from the palace four times. After many disasters, it interpreted many legendary stories.
(1) The mounter replaced the fake goods with the real ones.
The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was first collected by Song Huizong in the court of Northern Song Dynasty. 11September 26, the Jin Bing captured the emperor Qin Hui and looted the treasures in the palace. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is circulated among the people. After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the gold, this painting entered the palace for the second time. During the Yuan Dynasty to Mindfulness, there was a framer in the palace who exchanged the original and the replica and sold them to Chen Yanlian of Wulin (Hangzhou). Chen was afraid of failure and was in a hurry to use the money, so he sold it to Yang Zhun.
(2) Soup is framed, and bite the hand that feeds you.
According to Gu Sugong's "The Story of Summer" in Qing Dynasty, Yu Wang in Taicang has a picture of the riverside at Qingming Festival. When Yan Shifan found out, he forced him to ask for it. Yu Wang didn't want to, so he asked a master (that is, Huang Biao) to send a copy. As early as when he was the governor of Zhejiang, there was a painter named Tang. His life was very difficult. A picture of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was sent to Yan's home, and it was painted next to it. He said, "This picture is fake." After listening to this, Yan Shishan was very angry, which was worth invading Datong. At that time, Wang (Yu) was the governor of Su Liao, and there was no way to defend the enemy. Yan's followers took the opportunity to impeach Wang Yu and were killed.
(3) Mrs. Lu embroidered pillows and hid paintings.
According to Li Rihua's Diary of Wei Shui Xuan in the Ming Dynasty, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1522- 1566), the treacherous court official Yan Song was in charge of the state affairs, and his son Yan Shifan was arrogant and domineering, and he ran rampant in the village. When they learned that The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was a masterpiece, they sent people to search everywhere. At this time, this painting is stored in Luwan's home. After Lu Wan's death, his wife cherished this painting and hid it in an embroidered pillow. My wife has a nephew named Wang, who is good at drawing. He is clever and talkative. She asked to see the painting when she was happy, but she couldn't refuse at the moment, so she allowed him to sit in a small pavilion without pen and ink and watch it for a limited time. Wang Shenghao is very clever. After reading it for more than ten times, he has memorized the composition and layout of the houses, streets, ships and figures in the painting. When he returns, he will copy the whole painting and spread it all over the world.
(4) Feng avert suspicion eunuch rumor.
According to legend, after The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival entered the palace, the emperor didn't like calligraphy and painting, so Zhou Gongzhu took the opportunity to ask the emperor to give it to him, but the emperor appraised it as a high price to pay his salary. When the painting was to be given to Zhu, a little eunuch learned that the painting was priceless, so he stole it and was about to leave the palace when the housekeeper came. The little eunuch hurriedly hid the painting in a sewer. It happened to rain that day and it rained for three days in a row.
This story was collected by Amin Zhan Jingfeng in his Introduction to Oriental Books. In fact, it was invented by Feng Bao, a painter who stole paintings. Feng Bao was the eunuch who wrote in Wanli period of Qin Long, and was the leader of the East Factory. He has the power and influence to go in and out of the palace. After learning that the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival had an inscription, if it was a reward from the emperor, he must have written a masterpiece in the inscription, but Feng Bao didn't mention anything at last, showing that he stole it. In order to hide people's eyes and ears, he fabricated the above bizarre story.
(5) Xuan Tong Palace in Qing Dynasty stole treasures.
The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was collected by Liu Feiyuan after it entered Qing Dynasty. In the second year of Jiaqing, Bi Yuan died. In the fourth year (1799), Bi Jiachao, the Riverside Map on Qingming Festival, became an official for the fourth time. It was placed in the Yingchun Pavilion of the Forbidden City. Since then, the Riverside Map on the Qingming Festival has been kept in the Qing Palace.
After the Revolution of 1911, Puyi (Xuan Tong) abdicated and still lived in the palace. Before 1925 left the palace, he stole the precious calligraphy and painting in the palace to Tianjin. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is one of them. After the establishment of Manchukuo, he took this painting to Changchun Palace. 1945, on the eve of the liberation of Northeast China, Puyi fled hastily and came to Tonghua with this painting. He was reluctant to lose it, and was captured by our army and collected in the Northeast Museum. 1955 allocated to the Palace Museum. This is the fifth time that The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has entered the Forbidden City, but it is not the former Forbidden City, but the People's Museum.
During the Cultural Revolution, Li Zuopeng, one of the four chief officials in Lin Biao, took advantage of his power to "borrow" the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival from the Palace Museum and took it for himself. Together with Qiu, Wu and others, he occupies a large number of other precious cultural relics. After the fall of Lin Biao, The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was rediscovered, and it is still treasured in the Palace Museum.
Discussion on the scroll content of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival: Since its publication, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has been copied in all dynasties, with different sizes. According to statistics, there are currently 30 copies of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in public and private collections at home and abroad.
What did the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival draw? Why is its charm enduring?
According to the statistics in Volume 8 of Qian's Zhuo Tang Wen Hua, the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has 1643 people and 208 animals, which is more than the classical novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms (11person) and A Dream of Red Mansions.
The whole picture of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival can be divided into three sections. When the picture unfolds, the first thing you see is the scenery on the outskirts of Bianjing. The middle section mainly depicts the busy scenes on both sides of Shangtu Bridge and Bianhe River. The second half depicts the street view of Bianjing City. The size of the word is less than 3 cm, as small as a bean. If you look at them carefully, they are both physically and mentally interesting.
The riverside scene on Qingming Festival ranges from Yuan Ye, Haohe and Shanglang to boats, car figures, pavements, decorations and market signs. Real and natural, it makes people feel as if they are there. The whole work is long but not redundant, complicated but not chaotic, tight and compact, as if in one go, which fully shows the extraordinary brushwork of the painter Zhang Zeduan and deserves to be a rare treasure in China's art treasure house.
According to the textual research of Amin Li Dongyang's inscription, there should be a landscape map of the outer suburbs before The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which is inscribed with fine gold lettering of Song Huizong, and the collection uses Shuanglong seal. Now all these paintings are gone. There are two reasons. One possibility is that this picture has been circulated for too long, and the beginning part was broken after being enjoyed by countless people, so it was cut off when later generations mounted it; One possibility is that Song Huizong's inscription and Ssangyong Xiao Zhuan are valuable, and later generations deliberately cut them off and sold them as another painting.
Many experts suspect that the second half of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is missing, because this painting should not come to an abrupt end just after entering Kaifeng City, but should be painted all the way to Jinming Pool.
Whether the second half of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has been lost and how many mysteries remain have attracted Chinese and foreign scholars and experts to explore.