# Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Qingming shanghe tu), the Beijing scroll > Zhang Zeduan - 12th century: Northern Song according to the Palace Museum, with a date after 1127 argued by others > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/zhang-zeduan/zhang-zeduan-along-the-river-during-the-qingming-festival-palace-museum/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-10-08 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Zhang Zeduan - **Date:** 12th century: Northern Song according to the Palace Museum, with a date after 1127 argued by others - **Medium:** Ink and light colour on silk; handscroll - **Dimensions:** 24.8 x 528 cm (Palace Museum) - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Chinese, 12th century: Northern Song (Palace Museum) or after 1127 (Hansen) - **Current location:** Palace Museum, Beijing (Forbidden City) - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A silk handscroll about 24.8 cm high and 5.28 m long in the Palace Museum, Beijing, showing the countryside, a canal with an arched timber bridge and the streets inside a city gate. It is attributed to Zhang Zeduan on the strength of one colophon dated 1186, the earliest text about the painter, and it is among the most copied pictures in Chinese art, so that much of what bears its title is a different object. Almost everything about it is argued: the painter's dates, whether it was made before or after the fall of the Northern Song in 1127, whether the city is Kaifeng or an invented one, whether qingming names a festival or a peaceful age. The chain of owners runs through Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing colophons and a famous but unreliable Yan Song story to the Qing palace and then to the emperor Puyi, who took it out of the Forbidden City in the 1920s. From there it passed through a Manchukuo palace, the Northeast Bank and the Northeast Museum in Shenyang, where Yang Renkai appraised it in 1950 or soon after. Since 2012 it has been on the list of works forbidden from exhibition abroad, and it is shown in full about once a decade. Its last showing ran from 30 September to 29 October 2025. This record separates the Beijing scroll from the 1736-37 Qing court version in Taipei, the Suzhou workshop scrolls, the Qiu Ying type and the two Metropolitan Museum scrolls, and it records the many dates on which the sources disagree. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **early 12th century (date disputed)** Painted by Zhang Zeduan (attribution rests on an inscription of 1186) `[disputed]` (origin) No patron, commission or date is recorded. The Palace Museum catalogues it as Northern Song; its research director argues 1102 to 1110; Hansen and Cahill argue after 1126; and Tsao Hsingyuan argues about a century earlier than usual. The painter's dates (1085 to 1145 in some catalogues) are not given by the Palace Museum. - **before 1127 (claimed)-1127** Northern Song court, Emperor Huizong and the family of Empress Xiang (claimed) `[disputed]` (claimed early ownership) Chinese Wikipedia says it was in the Northern Song court and then with the family of Empress Xiang, consort of Shenzong. Yu Hui argues that Huizong inscribed the title and gave it to his maternal uncle Xiang Zonghui. Yang Renkai in 1950 accepted from the records that it entered the Xuanhe palace. Hansen says the claimed Huizong title appears in a 1352 colophon, that Huizong's characters do not appear on the scroll and that the claim must be viewed with scepticism. - **1186-unknown** Jin court circle: Zhang Zhu and other Jin colophon writers `[documented]` (first dated record) The colophon of Zhang Zhu, a Jin court official who supervised the imperial painting collection, is dated the day after Qingming in the 26th year of Dading (1186). Chinese Wikipedia lists further Jin colophons by Zhang Gongyao, Li Quan, Wang Long and Zhang Shiji, unverified. Whether the owner was the Jin court or a private person is disputed: Hansen's booklet says the Jin imperial collection, her 1996 article says private hands throughout the Jin. - **13th century-unknown** Jia Sidao, Southern Song chancellor (per Chinese Wikipedia only) `[unknown]` (claimed ownership) Stated in Chinese Wikipedia without a source. No primary evidence was seen. - **Yuan-unknown** Yuan palace collection (claimed); Yuan colophon writers Yang Zhun, Liu Han and Li Qi `[disputed]` (colophons and claimed imperial holding) Yang Renkai says the records show Yuan palace Tianli seals, though the seals no longer survive. A 1352 colophon exists. Chinese Wikipedia tells of a palace mounter substituting a copy and the original reaching a private owner in Hangzhou. Hansen says it entered the imperial collection only under the Yuan. - **c. 1490s-1499** Xu Pu (1429-1499), Grand Secretary, then Li Dongyang (1447-1516) `[disputed]` (colophons by Li Dongyang; reported gift from Xu Pu) What is documented is Li Dongyang's two long colophons, noted by Yang Renkai and by Yu Hui, which show he saw and wrote on the scroll. That Xu Pu owned it and gave it to him on his deathbed is reported by one tertiary source, Chinese Wikipedia, which dates the gift to 1451, impossible on its own biographies (Li was born in 1447); a gift of the 1490s would fit. Chinese Wikipedia also names a Ming official, Zhu Wenhui, as an early Ming holder, unverified. - **by c. 1524-1526 or earlier** Lu Wan (1457-1526) `[disputed]` (colophon; reported ownership) Lu Wan is named among the colophon writers in Yang Renkai's 1950 report, which shows he saw the scroll; a colophon does not prove ownership. Chinese Wikipedia says the scroll came to him before about 1524, without a source. - **c. 1520s-1560s** Yan Song (1480-1567) and Yan Shifan, or their circle (in the stories) `[disputed]` (alleged acquisition, purchase or copy) Several accounts, as summarised by Chinese Wikipedia: a pledge by Lu Wan's son to a Kunshan family and a later purchase for 1,200 jin (Wen Jia); a purchase from the Lu family of Suzhou for 1,200 jin (Tian Yiheng); a copy sold to the censor Wang Yu and given to Yan Song, denounced by a mounter (Li Rihua and Gu Gongxie). The character is the one meaning gold, not the weight unit jin or catty. No source states which scroll changed hands. - **1560s-1570s-1578** Imperial court, confiscated (Longqing reign) `[disputed]` (confiscation) A 2015 Xinhua feature and Chinese Wikipedia say it was confiscated after the Yan family's fall and entered the court for the third time. Not checked against Ming sources. - **1578-unknown** The eunuch Feng Bao (claimed) `[disputed]` (claimed removal from the palace) Stated by the 2015 Xinhua feature and Chinese Wikipedia, the latter adding that he added colophons. No Ming source seen. - **late 16th century-mid-18th century** Unknown private owners `[unknown]` (gap) The scroll is recorded in Zhang Chou's Qinghe shuhua fang (completed 1616), Sun Chengze's Gengzi xiaoxia ji (completed 1660) and the Shigutang shuhua ji, which show it was known and described, but the Palace Museum entry does not name the owner. No owner is documented for roughly a century and a half. - **mid-18th century-1790** Lu Feichi (1731-1790) `[disputed]` (alleged ownership and seals) Named in Chinese Wikipedia and the 2015 Xinhua feature as owner who added seals and colophons. Yang Renkai's 1950 report does not list him. - **late 18th century-1797** Bi Yuan (1730-1797), Governor-General of Huguang `[documented]` (ownership) Bi Yuan's seals are listed in the 1950 report; Chinese Wikipedia and the Xinhua feature name him as the last private owner. - **1799-1922** Qing imperial household (Jiaqing reign onward) `[documented]` (confiscation and entry to the palace) Yu Hui says Bi Yuan's property was confiscated in 1799, that the Jiaqing Emperor stamped the scroll with his viewing seal and that it was recorded in the third compilation of Shiqu baoji. Chinese Wikipedia dates the palace entry to 1797. Yang Xin counts four entries to the palace before the 1950s. - **1922-1932** Puyi, the abdicated emperor, and his brother Pujie `[documented]` (removal from the Forbidden City) Yang Renkai's 1950 report and a 2015 Xinhua feature say Puyi began removing paintings in 1922 in the name of gifts to Pujie. A list of the gifts is said to have been found by the Qing Household Settlement Committee on 31 July 1925 with the scroll in it. Stages: Prince Chun's residence, then the Zhang Garden in Tianjin (Xinhua). Hansen gives 1925 for the move to Manchuria. - **1932-August 1945** Puyi, Manchukuo palace, Changchun `[disputed]` (storage) About 2,000 items in more than a hundred crates were stored in the East Courtyard library of the palace, known as the Little White Building, on the Xinhua feature's account. This rests on one press feature and on Chinese Wikipedia, whose own sentence carries a citation-needed tag; Yang's 2005 interview confirms that the Little White Building held Puyi's crates in general and does not name this scroll. - **August 1945-1949** Chinese forces and then the Northeast Bank `[disputed]` (seizure and transfer) Puyi left Changchun on 11 August and chose some 120 handscrolls to carry; he was taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army at Mukden or Shenyang (English Wikipedia; Xinhua feature), and the scrolls passed to the Northeast Democratic Allied Army and the Northeast People's Bank. Yang Renkai's report says, with it is said, that the bank held what was captured at Tonghua in 1945. - **1949-1950s** Northeast Museum, Shenyang (Liaoning Provincial Museum from 1959) `[documented]` (museum custody and identification) The bank's 120-odd handscrolls went to the Northeast Museum, which opened on 7 July 1949. Yang Renkai's report records an appraisal begun on 30 August 1950. The date of identification is variously given as 1950, 1951 and 1952, and the story that the true scroll lay among forgeries comes from his later recollection and press features. - **1954 or 1958 or 1959-present** Palace Museum, Beijing `[disputed]` (transfer) Hansen says Chinese scholars announced the scroll in the Palace Museum in 1954. A Guancha feature says the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of Culture transferred it in 1958. An undated popular article says 1959. Collection number xin 00087177. No sale at auction or by private treaty is recorded for this scroll in any source consulted, and the only money recorded against it is the Ming figure of 1,200 jin in the Yan Song stories. It is a state-owned first-grade relic on the 2012 list of works forbidden from foreign exhibition. Last shown from 30 September to 29 October 2025. ## Exhibitions - Exhibition of 72 masterpieces of Chinese painting and calligraphy from mainland collections (title not given in the source), Shanghai Museum, 2002 - Qingming shanghe tu and Song genre painting exhibition, 10 to 23 October, Yanxi Palace, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2005 - Shown from late June; replaced by a Qiu Ying scroll from 23 July (Newsweek), Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2007 - Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing (scroll shown 2 to 24 January), Tokyo National Museum, 2012 - Shiqu baoji special exhibition (scroll shown to 11 October), Wuying Hall, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2015 - A Hundred Years of Guardianship: from the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum (scroll shown 30 September to 29 October), Wumen gallery, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2025 - Showing noted in the Tokyo museum's 2012 announcement, date not given, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, undated ## Open questions - Who painted the scroll and when? The Palace Museum's research office argues a date of 1102 to 1110, Hansen and Cahill argue after 1126, Tsao Hsingyuan a century earlier than usual and Jonathan Hay other artists. The only dated evidence is the Jin colophon of 1186. - Was the scroll ever in the Song court collection? Yang Renkai in 1950 accepted a Huizong title slip and Xuanhe provenance from the records; Yu Hui argues Huizong gave it to his uncle Xiang Zonghui; and Hansen calls the Huizong claim unsupported and says it remained in private hands throughout the Jin. - Why does Hansen write both that the first records place the scroll in the Jin imperial collection and that it stayed in private hands under the Jin? The two statements in her 1996 booklet and article are not reconciled. - Who owned the scroll between the Yan family's fall and Bi Yuan? The Qinghe shuhua fang of 1616 and the Gengzi xiaoxia ji of 1660 record it, and the Palace Museum entry does not say who held it. Lu Feichi is named only in Chinese Wikipedia and a popular feature. - How much of the Yan Song story is historical? The accounts differ on whether he bought the scroll, received a copy or had a mounter denounce it, and they come from the diary of Li Rihua, the writings of Tian Yiheng and Wen Jia and the later Gu Gongxie, as summarised by Chinese Wikipedia. - Where and by whom was the scroll seized in 1945? Yang Renkai's report gives Tonghua and a capture of Puyi there; English Wikipedia gives a capture at Mukden on 17 August; and the Xinhua feature gives the Shenyang airport and receipt by the Northeast Democratic Allied Army. - When was the scroll identified, and was it among forgeries? Yang's report says the appraisal began on 30 August 1950, Yu Hui says 1951, Yang's 2005 interview and the Xinhua feature say 1952. The story of the true scroll set aside among forgeries rests on Yang's later recollection. - When and by what instrument did the scroll pass from the Northeast Museum to the Palace Museum? Hansen implies it was in Beijing by 1954; a 2025 Guancha feature says 1958 through the Cultural Relics Bureau; and an undated popular article says 1959. - How long was the scroll originally? Li Dongyang's colophon says a little over two zhang; a 2005 report says half is missing; and the present length is 5.28 m. The conversion of the Ming measure has not been made in the sources found. - What exactly was done to the scroll in 1973, and has the removal of the Ming ox fragment been reviewed? The only account found is a paper by Xu Zhongling listed in a conference report, and no conservation file is published. - Were the rumours about a substitute copy ever tested? Yang Xin told the 2005 conference of reports that Lin Biao replaced the original with a copy, and Chinese Wikipedia, citing a 1999 popular book, says that Li Zuopeng took it on forced loan. No source gives evidence for either. - Is there any technical study of the silk, pigments or underdrawing? None was found, and no IIIF manifest or high-resolution official scan is openly published. - When did the Liaoning Provincial Museum show the scroll? The Tokyo museum's 2012 announcement lists Liaoning among the places it had been shown outside the Palace Museum, with no date. ## Sources - [1] Valerie Hansen, 'The Mystery of the Qingming Scroll and Its Subject: The Case Against Kaifeng', Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies 26 (1996), pp. 183-200 (scanned PDF read page by page; footnotes cite Whitfield's 1965 Princeton dissertation). - [2] Valerie Hansen, 'The Beijing Qingming Scroll and Its Significance for the Study of Chinese History' (Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies booklet, 1996; scanned PDF, introduction pp. 1-6 read). - [3] Palace Museum, Beijing, collection page 'Zhang Zeduan Qingming shanghe tu juan' (text by Yang Xin), collection number xin 00087177, with the museum's related-articles list. - [4] Palace Museum, Minghuaji (Famous Paintings of the Palace Museum), entry for the scroll: 24.8 x 528 cm, 13 colophon writers, 96 seals, catalogues recording it and the painter's brief biography. - [5] China Heritage Quarterly No. 4 (Dec 2005), 'International Conference on Qingming shanghe tu and Song Dynasty Genre Paintings, Beijing, 10-12 October 2005', conference report with paper list. - [6] National Cultural Heritage Administration, notice 1345 of 2012 (dated 11 June 2012, published 26 June 2012), 'Notice on issuing the Second List of Cultural Relics Forbidden from Exhibition Abroad (paintings and calligraphy)'. - [7] Tokyo National Museum, exhibition page for 'Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing' (2 January to 19 February 2012), with the scroll's display dates and replica notice. - [8] Alexandra A. Seno, 'A Rare Look at China's Mona Lisa', Newsweek, 15 July 2007 (sentences read through a fetch tool, not the raw page). - [9] Beijing Evening News, 'The Qingming shanghe tu is unrolled in full for the first time in ten years', 8 September 2015, republished by Xinhua (Shiqu baoji special exhibition; Shan Jixiang on display rules). - [10] Xinhua, 'Qingming shanghe tu meets viewers again after ten years', 30 September 2025 (Wumen gallery exhibition A Hundred Years of Guardianship). - [11] Guancha, 'The treasure among treasures has come', feature by Ni Wei, 1 October 2025 (provenance summary, 1958 transfer, Yu Hui's reading, Shao Bao). - [12] Zhu Hongwen (vice-director of the Palace Museum), 'From three showings of Qingming shanghe tu', Guangming Daily, republished 4 January 2026 (2005, 2015 and 2025 display dates and visitor figures). - [13] Yu Hui (Palace Museum research office), lecture 'Northern Song Zhang Zeduan's Qingming shanghe tu: secrets revealed', Palace Museum Forum, 26 October 2012 (lecture of 22 September 2012). - [14] Yang Renkai, interview 'I discovered the genuine Qingming shanghe tu', from Daijia 1 (Commercial Press, January 2005), excerpt on Guangming Online, 1 November 2005. - [15] Xinkuaibao (Guangzhou), 'Yang Renkai appraises the Qingming shanghe tu', 4 September 2022, quoting Yang's '1950 appraisal report on the Puyi paintings held by the Northeast Museum' (secondary reprint of a primary text). - [16] Xinhua Daily Telegraph / Kan Tianxia (Zhang Xinming), 'Discovery of the genuine Qingming shanghe tu', republished on Sohu 6 November 2015, drawing on Yang Renkai and Dong Baohou of the Liaoning Museum. - [17] Undated popular article on Sohu, 'five entries to the palace and four times into private hands' (cited only for the 1959 transfer date and the Zheng Zhenduo and Xu Bangda claim; low reliability). - [18] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Qingming shanghe tu' (tertiary source; provenance narrative, colophon list and Yan Song stories; many statements are unsourced and are flagged where used). - [19] English Wikipedia, 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival' (tertiary source; counts, versions, Hong Kong and Tokyo showings, digital version). - [20] Asia for Educators, Columbia University, 'Two Versions of the Scroll' (excerpt from Hansen 1996: scroll announced in the Palace Museum in 1954). - [21] National Palace Museum, Taipei, selection article on the Qing court version (35.6 x 1152.8 cm, 1736, five painters). - [22] National Palace Museum, Taipei, special exhibition 'Up the River During Qingming' (eight handscrolls on the subject; Suzhou imitations; the Beijing original). - [23] Cheng-hua Wang, 'One Painting, Two Emperors, and Their Cultural Agendas: Reinterpreting the Qingming Shanghe Painting of 1737', Archives of Asian Art 70(1), 2020 (abstract via Crossref). - [24] Roderick Whitfield, 'A Word for Shen Yuan', Archives of Asian Art 71(1), 2021 (abstract via Crossref search). - [25] Harvard-Yenching Institute, publisher's page for Cheng-hua Wang, 'Up the River of Time: The Chinese Painting Tradition of Qingming Shanghe' (Monograph Series 147, June 2026). - [26] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, open-access API record for 47.18.1, 'Spring Festival on the River' (Fletcher Fund 1947). - [27] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, open-access API record for 11.170, 'Going Upriver on the Qingming Festival' (Rogers Fund 1911). - [28] Wikimedia Commons file page, 'Alongtheriver QingMing.jpg' (source Baidu Tieba; stated 28.2 x 528.7 cm). - [29] Wikimedia Commons file page, 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Qing Court Version).jpg' (National Palace Museum data, accession gu-hua-001110). - [30] Wikimedia Commons file page, 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Suzhou Imitation).jpg' (National Palace Museum data, accession gu-hua-001605). - [31] Wikimedia Commons file page, 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival (by Shen Yuan).jpg' (National Palace Museum data, accession gu-hua-001707). - [32] Wikimedia Commons file page, 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival PRE Restoration Detail.jpg' (source: People's Fine Arts Publishing replica, Beijing, 1961). - [33] English Wikipedia, 'Puyi' (tertiary; flight of 11 August 1945 and capture at Mukden). - [34] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Li Dongyang' (tertiary; dates 1447-1516). - [35] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Xu Pu' (tertiary; dates 1429-1499). - [36] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Bi Yuan' (tertiary; dates 1730-1797). - [37] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Tianshui bingshan lu' (tertiary; inventory of the confiscated Yan family property). - [38] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Cultural relics forbidden from exhibition abroad' (tertiary; legal frame and the three lists). - [39] Old Chinese Paintings on Stamps, 'A City in Cathay' (Taiwan, 1968; Qing court version). - [40] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Palace Museum' (tertiary; about 1,300 paintings and calligraphies removed by Puyi, about 370 returned to the Palace Museum). - [41] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Zhang Zeduan' (tertiary; dates given as 1085-1145). - [42] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Liaoning Provincial Museum' (tertiary; Northeast Museum opened 7 July 1949, renamed 1959). - [43] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Lu Feichi' (tertiary; dates 1731-1790). - [44] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Lu Wan' (tertiary; dates 1457-1526). - [45] Chinese Wikipedia, 'Yan Song' (tertiary; dates 1480-1567, fall and confiscation). - [46] National Cultural Heritage Administration, attachment to notice 1345 of 2012: 'Second List of Cultural Relics Forbidden from Exhibition Abroad (paintings and calligraphy)', item 33. - [47] English Wikipedia, 'Zhang Zeduan' (tertiary; dates 1085-1145). - [48] Red Star News (Fu Yao), 'Qingming shanghe tu shown again at the Palace Museum after ten years', 11 October 2025 (queues and viewing times at the Wumen gallery). - [49] Wikidata item Q714802 (Along the River During the Qingming Festival), via the Wikidata API: image Alongtheriver QingMing.jpg, inventory number xin 00087177, height 24.8 cm, width 528 cm. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. 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