Improvised great ages : the creating of Qingming shengshi /  by Su-Chen Chang.

Thesis (Ph.D., Art History and Theory)--University of British Columbia, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract-From the Ming to the Qing dynasty, Qingming shanghe tu was among the paintings most frequently copied by professional painters and most often collected and viewed by urban residents, merchants, scholar officials and nobles. Over one hundred copies are extant. Modern scholars have disregarded these paintings, considering them not as “original works” but as mere copies and/or forgeries after Zhang Zeduan or Qiu Ying. This thesis proves their value by showing that though based on earlier works, Qingming painters created distinctive paintings that visualized pre-modern viewers’ various conceptions of a “great age,” an ideal society from the traditional Chinese perspective—Qingming Shengshi. Through comparisons of the earliest Qingming scroll by Zhang Zeduan of the Song dynasty and six selected Qingming paintings from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, my thesis shows that later painters reinterpreted the subject matter, copied and modified original motifs, and added new motifs drawn from contemporary life experiences and concerns. That is, these painters created new paintings using the title and structure of the well-known Zhang Zeduan scroll. Many Ming-Qing viewers stated that the Qingming scrolls were portrayals of a prosperous age. My analysis shows that themes in these paintings relate closely to the economic success and social changes in this period. In other words, painters and patrons extracted elements of the prosperity and cultural transformations of their age to design paintings based on the notion of Qingming shengshi. The variety of these scrolls and responses via inscriptions demonstrate that people from various backgrounds and different times and places held diverse views of an ideal world. Analysis of the six paintings reveals that over time this ideal world grew from a smaller prosperous economy to a much larger one, and changed from one where humble customs were followed to a much more luxurious, unrestrained and fashion-conscious way of living. Despite these changes, certain conservative ideas were preserved. Such traits demonstrate that people’s view of a great age was a dynamic conjunction of various conventions and new fashions, and lead us to believe that this was a new mode of visual cultural production: a model of improvisation.

Local access dig.pdf. [Chang-Qingming Shengshi.pdf]

See UBC Open Collections

Qingming shanghetu  清明上河圖  / Zhang Zeduan hui 張擇端繪 ; Dong Zuobin kaoding  董作賓考訂.

Includes essay in English: "An introduction to Chang Tse-twan's painting The Ch'ing-ming Festival at the river" by Tung Tso-pin.

民國四十九年再版 [1960]

Na Zhiliang zhu 那志良著.
Examines the early Qing dynasty studio-reproduction (yuanben 院本) of a full-color handscroll held at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, depicting the city of Bianjing during the Qingming festival. (NOT the earlier, Song-era black-and-white scroll attributed to Zhang Zeduan 張擇端). This color version was painted for the young Qianlong Emperor in 1736. "A City of Cathay" is an 11-meter handscroll by artists of the Qing court. It depicts a captivating vision of urban life centuries earlier in the Northern Song capital (modern Kaifeng), on the day of the springtime Qingming festival.

Qingming shanghetu 清明上河圖 / Zhang Zeduan ; Zhang Anzhi zhuwen 張擇端 ; 張安治著文.
Includes bibliographical references.

This CD-ROM is based on the early Qing dynasty studio-reproduction (yuanben 院本) of a full-color handscroll held at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, depicting the city of Bianjing during the Qingming festival. (NOT the earlier, Song-era monochrome scroll attributed to Zhang Zeduan 張擇端).
" ... Painted for the young Qianlong Emperor in 1736, "A City of Cathay" is an 11-meter handscroll by artists of the Qing court. It depicts a captivating vision of urban life centuries earlier in the Northern Song capital (modern Kaifeng), on the day of the springtime Qingming festival" (from vendor). Review at: The Cultural Cafe

Zhang Zeduan Qingming shanghetu yanjiu 張擇端淸明上河圖硏究 / Zhang Anzhi zhu 張安治著.
Details of a handscroll (35.6 cm. x 1152.8 cm.) in the collection of the Beijing gugong bowuyuan 北京故宮博物院 depicting the city of Bianjing during the Qingming festival.
English title varies: Spring festival on the river (LC auth). Going up the river at Ch'ing-ming Festival time, Spring festival on the river, Going up the river at Qingming Festival time, City of Cathay, Going upriver for the Qingming Festival, Riverside scene at Qing Ming.