Cargo Ship with 8 Men Paddling (Text)

Cargo Ship with 8 Men Paddling

The river is full of such cargo vessels transporting various goods and food items to different locations in the city.

This is a relatively small cargo vessel. The eight men on the boat are paddling it towards the city. We see a similar technique of navigation elsewhere in the scroll; see, for example, the locations "Cargo Vessel #8" and "Cargo Vessel #10".

In the Northern Song (960-1127), the Bian River has become one of the major water routes that the government uses to transport agricultural products from the south to the capital city of Kaifeng. Moreover, many merchants also use the Bian River to transport and distribute their goods in the capital area. The volume of water traffic is therefore extremely high, as it is depicted in the painting here.