Introduction
The “Qing Court Version” by artists, Chen Mei, Sun Hu, Jin Kun, Dai Hong and Cheng Zhidao; handscroll, ink and colors on silk, 35.6 x 1152.8 cm (14.08 in x 453.85 in)
Created by court painters in the Imperial Painting Academy of Emperor Qianlong (r. 1735-1796) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), this scroll is one of many works inspired by Zhang Zeduan’s 張擇端 12th century original painting of the same name. The English title translation has been a topic of lively discussion among specialists of this scroll, and so we preserve the Chinese name as is scholarly custom. That said, some clarification is as follows: shanghe tu generally refers to a “going-along-the-river picture”; qingming could mean “clear and bright” or it could refer to a specific holiday or time of the year in China, which occurs in early spring.
The subject is daily life across rural and urban landscapes, based specifically on Zhang’s vision of the Northern Song (960-1126) capital of Bian (present-day Kaifeng), but here, perhaps reflecting the more generalized spaces of 18th century China. The format is the handscroll, a long piece of silk across which the landscape has been rendered and which is unfurled scene by scene to reveal a sprawling, moving and constantly engaging vista. Here, our class annotations zoom in on certain scenes, subjects or themes to contribute rich dimension to our reading of this famous work from China.