Zhang Zeduan

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Image:清明上河图2.jpg Image:QingmingshangHetu.jpg Zhang Zeduan (Traditional Chinese: 張擇端; Simplified Chinese: 张择端; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāng Zéduān; Wade-Giles: Chang Tse-tuan) (1085-1145), alias Zheng Dao, was a famous Chinese painter during the twelfth century, during the transitional period from the Northern Song to the Southern Song Dynasty. He was a native of Dongwu (present Zhu Cheng, Shandong). There is evidence that he was a court painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, and that in the aftermath of that dynasty's fall, his paintings were criticisms of the new dynasty. Most of what is known about Zhang Zeduan's life comes from a colophon written in 1186 by a man named Zhang Zhu.

[edit] The Qingming Scroll.

Zhang Zeduan's most famous painting is Qingming Shanghe Tu (清明上河圖 qīng míng shàng hé tú) also known as "Along the River During Ching Ming Festival" although this translation is disputed. It is a very wide (around 30 feet) handscroll which depicts a city. The translation of its title is disputed; as the word "Qingming" can refer to either the Qingming Festival or to peace and order, two translations have been proposed by scholars: Going Upriver on the Qingming Festival or Peace Reigns Over the River.

Traditionally, three things have been believed about the painting:

The city depicted is Kaifeng.
It was painted before the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty in 1127.
It depicts the Qingming Festival.

More recent scholarship challenges all three of those assertions:

The city depicted is an idealized non-existent city.
It was painted after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty in 1127.
It depicts a scene in early fall.

The Qingming Scroll is historically notable as one of the few paintings from the former imperial collection that is still in the possession of Mainland China; it was a particular favorite of emperor Puyi, who took it with him to Manchukuo and thus kept the Southern Song Dynasty original out of the collection of the National Palace Museum which was subsequently moved to Taiwan. The National Palace Museum in Taiwan collects other versions painted by artists of subsequent dynasties[1]. Now held at the Forbidden City, the Southern Song original is closely guarded by Chinese authorities and only exhibited for brief periods every few years.