Qingming Scroll and Song Commerce

Song commerce flourished more than in any earlier age. In Tang, cities had a ward-and-market system with residential and commercial areas strictly separated and commercial activity limited by time. Song broke these limits: shops could open anywhere in the city, trading hours were unrestricted, and morning and night markets appeared. Many commercial cities arose along the Yellow River, Yangtze and canals, and Northern Song's Dongjing (Kaifeng) and Southern Song's Lin'an (Hangzhou) each held up to a million people. Beyond the cities appeared periodic “grass markets” and new market towns, spreading commodity trade into the countryside. Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a work of the late Northern Song painter Zhang Zeduan. A silk handscroll in color, about 528 cm long and 25 cm wide, it uses scattered-point perspective to depict, in scroll form, the bustle of the outskirts of Dongjing and the banks of the Bian River at Qingming. It begins in quiet countryside, passes the busy Bian River docks and reaches the lively streets inside the city. It has over 550 figures, fifty or sixty animals, over twenty boats, over twenty carts and sedan chairs, and rainbow bridges, city towers, teahouses, taverns, butcher shops, drugstores, temples and stalls, each with its own manner. At its center is the wooden Rainbow Bridge over the Bian River, thronged with people, while below a large boat lowers its mast to pass under. The painting vividly recreates the look of the Northern Song capital and the lives of all levels of society, is of high artistic value, and is a precious source for the study of Northern Song's economy, urban planning, transport and customs. It is regarded as one of China's Ten Famous Paintings.