Madryn Evans-Moran: Migration of Land Reform

Migration of Land Reform through the Qingming Shanghe Tu Scroll

Qingming Shanghe Tu is a beautiful handscroll with paint that dates back to the 18th century in China. This was the era of the Qing Dynasty, which was the last imperial dynasty to rule over China. This period saw many revolutionary characteristics to help boost China’s social, cultural, and economic sectors; especially for the arts. The long handscroll with paint helps depict this with everyday life in China during the Qing dynasty and what the landscape might have been like. We get evidence of human interaction with the land, how social hierarchy was divided, how landscape could differ through each social class, and we see the value the land has for China. The river that flows through the handscroll helps guide us through this process with river life, which emphasises animals, nature, and human society. 

This scroll is read right to left where the eye follows the river across the scroll and ends at a cliff of ledge. The painting is also divided into 3 sections with 2 division markers; each portion of division is different in size. The division markers are represented by man made walls. The first section, which occupies the most area of the scroll, depicts the lower class people of China. We see fishermen, farmers, laborers, and boatmen all along the river. Boats can be found floating down the river with passengers and merchandise; to the side of them we see laborers, merchants, and farmers walking along the river with animals aiding them in the journey to the inner city. In this portion, we also see more natural materials being used like wood to help signify class. For example: wooden bridges, wooden fences, and wooden huts. Later in the scroll we’ll see a transfer from less durable objects, to more durable ones made from stone and concrete. The land in this section is more dispersed, where viewers see less occupation of buildings, and more occupations that link man with nature. For example in section 3 of the scroll, we see rough roads, farming plots and little bridges. We get more visual of the natural beauty of the landscape, where more grass can be found than the other two portions of the scroll. The trees are more spread out unlike other areas and with the effect of massive open land, we can recognize the power and beauty of the land before it is completely shadowed by man. We get a sense of people migrating away from the open lands into the urban setting, which is aided by these little connectors like the bridges, roads, and horses. This portion of the scroll comes to an end once the river meets the first great wall to separate the countryside from the middle ring of the city. 

This second portion of the painting is divided right after the first wall, which represents the shopping and trading district. Here we can find middle class people, merchants trying to sell their goods, residential housing, entertainment, and shops with valuables. In this section, we get to visualize more on houses and everyday human activity, and less focus on the landscape. The landscape here is the most clustered area with humans and buildings; where less natural land is, however, the river still flows through this area because it's the guide for the viewer's eye. The landscape and its natural beauty is subordinated by human activity and dwellings to a certain extent. One interesting factor that can be found in this portion is that more trees are depicted than the first section, since there's less open space for landscape. This could be from the presence of man; where man lives he’ll tend to plant more trees for a new sense of beauty. In other terms, this portion has less natural beauty and more man made beauty to build up the environment and its appeal. Maybe the artist did this to make sure the viewers know that even with all these humans and buildings, China still valued the land very highly so they incorporated as many trees as possible. 

Outside of passion for trees and bushes spiritually, tree’s also provided aid for natural disasters like floods. Tree’s helped to provide protection from rivers by preventing too much run-off water upstream - erosion control. So these trees could have been planted here by man as a form of protecting the busy townscape from the river in case of a flood. In section 10 of the Qingming Shanghe Tu scroll, we see these clusters of trees along the river banks signifying that natural aid from the trees to prevent a problem from the river. This section comes to an end once the river meets the next wall dividing the social classes and activities from the previous section. 

This section is easily defined as the upper imperial class of those indulging in court life. Visual evidence can be found in art style, where vibrant colors are illuminated within the land and buildings. The buildings are made of more cement like material and other higher end materials, unlike the first portion of the scroll where more wood was depicted; this helps separate status among the other parts of the scrolls. The landscape here becomes more occupied by the river, which helps signify the end of the handscroll. The land here represents more gardenscape rather than farmscape. Water plays such a big role in Chinese gardens that it spiritually represents philosophy in China, and many major philosophers of China were in the imperial courts. In section 14 of the handscroll, we see a garden and temple surrounded by water. This could represent the embodiment of life and the natural charm of nature. The other sections had very basic trees where there wasn't a lot of variety in trees, however, this new section shows plum trees expressing the spring atmosphere of the land. We also see willow trees which signifies rebirth and immortality which helps show the restart of the seasons. This area is more defined as a section manipulated by man to add more beauty to the land. The other areas focus less on altercations by humans to make the land more beautiful, but this area does the opposite through the depictions of gardens and different trees. Human activity overall is more luxurious and we see this through the representations of boats and what they visually look like and are made of. This long handscroll comes to an official end visually once the river ends and the last depiction we get is a rocky cliff. 

Qingming Shanghe Tu is an elegant handscroll with paint which is visually and mentally powerful in expressing Chinese culture. The depiction of landscape and river life in this scroll help show how important the arts were and are to the world, especially China. We get to see what everyday life was like in the Qing Dynasty and how people interacted with the land. This handscroll painting helps show me how humans are a part of nature, rather than nature being a part of humans. The land we stand on is so massive and humans are like ants compared to the immense characteristics that make up our landscape. 

Sources: 

Article: Miles, Steven B. “From Mobility to Stability: Civil Examinations and Social Status in Eighteenth-Century China.” Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 2016-12-01, Vol.57 (4), (p.519-525).

Article: Huang, Fei. “The Making of a Frontier Landscape: The “Ten Views of Dongchuan” in Eighteenth-Century Southwest China.” Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: (p.56-88). 

Article: Zhang, Donia. “Classical Chinese Gardens: Landscapes for Self-Cultivation.”Alanya Hamdullah Emin Paşa Üniversitesi. Journal of contemporary urban affairs, 2018-06-01, Vol.2 (1)

Book: Afanasiev, M. M. “Trees and tree planting for posts, windbreaks and erosion control.” Oklahoma: Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, 1947

Article: Johnson, Linda Cooke. “The place of “Qingming Shanghe Tu” in the historical Song Dynasty Dongjing.” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies. Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasty Studies. No. 26 (1996), pp. 145-182 (38 pages)