Over eight hundred years ago, the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan depicted a beautiful scene at the Qingming Festival in Bianjing with his delicate brushstrokes, and this painting is known as The Riverside Scene at the Qingming Festival. Through this 5-meter-long scroll, the artist brings the history and social customs of the Song Dynasty to life.
This book presents a panoramic guide to life in the Song Dynasty as the “pinnacle of Song custom painting” and explores the rise and decline of custom painting in the Song Dynasty, its importance in Chinese art history, and, by extension, the history of Chinese painting, as well as a comparative analysis of the styles of Chinese and Western custom painting.
