The whole picture of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is more than 5 meters long and 2 meters wide. Zhang Zeduan, a painter, used scattered perspective to combine large-scale and fine techniques, including soldiers, farmers, workers, businessmen, doctors, priests, monks, Taoist priests, women, children, cattle, donkeys, camels and other livestock, as well as towers, bridges and rivers. It is not so much a painting as a documentary blockbuster "Tokyo Dream of China" which records the real life of ordinary people in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The riverside scene on Qingming Festival makes us feel the bustling scene of Tokyo, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. All kinds of people come and go in the painting, and there are also many shops: there are major restaurants (including 72 head stores and countless foot shops), medicine shops, iron shops, cloth shops and tea shops-a bit like the "milk tea shops" that we open in the streets now, which is more interesting. There are also shipping docks, towers, official pavilions of dignitaries and so on.
Behind the bustling scene in the painting, there are also signs of crisis before the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty: (1) There are no officers and men stationed in the tower, and camel merchants are free to enter and leave, which reveals that the current dynasty does not attach importance to military defense and gives the enemy an opportunity. (2) There is no sentry on duty in the fire area of Wanghuo Building, but in the canteen outside Wanghuo Building, people are chatting and drinking in twos and threes, which shows that management is lax. (3) A cargo ship tried to pass under the Bianhe Hongqiao, but its sails were still confiscated. Several crew members are still standing on the cargo pile, but they don't know it. It shows that the management mechanism of the river navigation management institution is not perfect, and warning navigation AIDS are not set in advance.
The reason why The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is a famous painting with a history of thousands of years stems from its historical data collection value: through it, we can understand the folk customs of the Northern Song Dynasty and whether the current regime management system is perfect. Through this painting, we can understand the artist Zhang Zeduan's exquisite painting skills and magnanimous spirit.