This picture is quite popular but so long, that I usually see only sections of it hung in some Chinese restaurants.

Thanks for showing it in its entirety.

Any idea how long it really is in real life?

The actual size of the original picture is 24.8 centimeters in high, 528 centimeters in width, according to the Beijing Palace Museum. Not sure about the size of this copied version.

See? In real life the picture looks pretty mini:


Exhibition of 清明上河图 in Shenyang, December 2004.

This "Qing Ming Shang He Tu" (painting of Qing Ming Upper River) was drawn by Zhang Ze Duan 张择端 of Song Dynasty. It represented the highest achievement in landscape art.

You did notice that one characteristic of chinese art is that it can be viewed and drawing from multiple perspective, as compared to a single point of perspective in western art. This means that chinese art can be drawn as long as it wants to be, being viewed from many perspective.

Indeed, this use multiple perspective is similar to what Western artists such as Pablo Picasso developed in the 20th century.


Scholars have also categorized this work as a "jiehua" or ruled-line painting, which render many carpentered objects such as buildings, ships, and carts. Prior to this painting, such paintings that relied on the use of rulers, were not considered with very high-esteem. In fact, I think they were frowned upon by the academy.

This particular work that Yogi has put up, however, is not the Zhang Zeduan's original, but is actually a later copy of his work. The original work depicted the Northern Song capital of Kaifeng (Biangliang), and is argued to have been painted to commemorate the reopening of the canal leading into the city.



It seems to me that Zhang Zeduan's Qingming Shanghe tu became a template for later works. I vaguely remember that the Ming and Qing painted their own versions of the Qingming scroll. The architecture and man-made artifacts as well as the names and labels on the painting can help to identify where it is from.

I wonder when this version of Qingming Shanghe Tu was painted.

the original (pardon the quality) looks like this:

Click to view attachment

oh- and this one too.Click to view attachment

sorry.

Qingming Shanghe Tu doesn't mean 'Qing Ming upper river'. It means 'Going to the river at the Qingming Festival'. The river in question is the Bian 汴 River which ran through Kaifeng.

http://www.bowdoin.edu/chinesescrolls/

Here is a link to the best Web Site I have found to examine the scroll.

I am really excited tonight! My long hours of internet searches for some good versions of the original Qingming Shanghe Tu have finally paid off! First, I found a site with 18 large sized and good quality scans of sections of the painting, plus several more scans of some details. I'll post the 18 here, plus the link at the end.

Here is the site where you can find not only the 18 scans I posted above, but several more:


http://edu.stuccess.com/knowcenter/Brush_A...ht/00000000.htm

And here are four more, from another site:










And here is the site. They have a lot of interesting paintings, very good quality scans too, I haven't had time to check it all out:

http://www.cnrr.cn/RRYS/YSHH/zgms/zgms35003.htm

And one more, from yet another site:




They have a few other paintings on the site, including some scans of a later copy of the Qingming Shanghe Tu:

http://www.cnlnsq.com/forum/thread-37338-1-1.html


That's it for tonight. Gotta get to bed!

Very nice !!!

We can see the 'ruled-line painting' (jiehua) technique we previously discussed in the sub-forum 'Chinese architecture' in this thread :
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=17203

thank you for posting these! they're fabulous scans! pity the original doesn't exist in completion anymore. i have a replica of the qing dynasty one.

Here are the rest of the pictures from the site I mentioned in post #13:

More:

Still more:

And the rest (finally). Spectacular detail!:

I beg to differ; there are Song Dynasty paintings from the same era which are much better in quality of detail and realism. However, Qingming Shanghetu is special in that it preserves so many historical pieces of evidence for Song Dynasty life; plus its size, theme, and amount of painted figures and buildings is very impressive. I like the 18th century Qing Dynasty version just a tad bit more; the one painted at the very beginning of Qianlong's reign.

Also, thanks for uploading all these Mr. Holman, and providing the link to them! Good work, the close-up scenes look excellent.
Eric (En Rui)

Thanks you so much Jake for all your hardwork! I cant believe you found such high resolution pics of the original. I have found good pics of the new one that was drawn during the Qing or Ming but the its VERY hard to find good pics of the original Song one. Thanks again

OH, Jake ! ! ! ! !
You have out done your self yet again. I have spent much time looking for close ups of this scroll. Many Thanks to you.

I love the detail, and I thought I was detail oriented in my art work, but I'm not even close to any one small section .. I can only wonder in amazement at the time it took to do this work.

This site has an album containing 68 detailed pics of the original Song Dynasty painting:

http://hi.baidu.com/%CB%CE%BE%FC%D2%C5%C3%...%DA%B4%F3%CD%BC

as well as 103 pics from the great Qing Dynasty "copy" (more like a new work loosely based on the original and a wonderful painiting in itself). Enjoy!

http://hi.baidu.com/%CB%CE%BE%FC%D2%C5%C3%...%CF%BA%D3%CD%BC

Other then the Song(Original) and Qing Dynasty verions(I have seen both), were there any more reproductions done? I heard there was one done during the Ming but I have never seen it.

I found a site with pictures of a few different versions of the painting at this site.

http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh96/orientation/index4_1_ch.html


It has a Ming version, the famous Qing version, and two Song versions. very interesting. I tried looking them up to see if I could find the full scroll online of the Ming and two Song versions but to no avail. Does anyone know where you can find these rare versions? They look rather different than the Qing one we most often see which generally portrays a mix of Qing and Late Ming customs and architecture opposed to these that were done before the Qing which are rather different