Annotation: "
The Qingming scroll has been interpreted as depicting the Northern Song (962-1127 CE) imperial capital of present-day Kaifeng or an..." (Annotation)

Annotation: "
The Qingming scroll has been interpreted as depicting the Northern Song (962-1127 CE) imperial capital of present-day Kaifeng or an..."

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The Qingming scroll has been interpreted as depicting the Northern Song (962-1127 CE) imperial capital of present-day Kaifeng or an idealized city, since the painting lacks any identifying features of Kaifeng.[i]  Whether the river depicted is the historical Bian which ran through the capital city or a conceptual version of daily life along a river, the scroll highlights the importance of waterways to major aspects of life in the Northern Song as enacted on a spring (and possible festival) day. The Bian River served as a thoroughfare for trade in the Tang and Song dynasties.[ii] It was constantly dredged to prevent a buildup of silt from bogging down river barges and other boats. Rivers that carried a lot of loess, like the Bian and Yellow Rivers, deposited silt into nearby fields when they flooded, adding a vital source of nutrients for growing crops. River water itself was diverted for irrigation. By the Northern Song, the river was severely silted from soil erosion through land clearance for population growth and greater agricultural and commercial activity. Groves of trees, like the willows here on the river’s edge, were pruned to promote their ability to prevent soil erosion (roots grew deeper when pruned over the winter).[iii] As the viewer moves along the river from the countryside to the commercial hub, fewer groves are visible along the embankment; large compounds, restaurants, and shops take their place, although a single tree might frame the gate. Land clearance, failure to consistently dredge the river, and bureaucratic mismanagement of the water as a resource was exacerbated by the chaos of Jurchen invasion and the shift of a northern capital northeast by the Jin. The river eventually disappeared; by the late 12th century, the old river bed had become part of the road system.[iv] As more silt entered the Bian River, water flow weakened and less silt was deposited into the surrounding farmland, contributing to a desertification of the fields. The disappearance of the river and the teeming life it supported may stand, too, as a comment on the loss of the north by the Song elite whose landscape managment and cultivation of a commercial hub contributed in part to its destruction.