Annotation: "This part of the scroll depicts the corner of large building complex on a busy intersection in the middle of..." (Annotation)

Annotation: "This part of the scroll depicts the corner of large building complex on a busy intersection in the middle of..."

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This part of the scroll depicts the corner of large building complex on a busy intersection in the middle of the city. In particular, I would like to focus on the circle of people crowded around the corner. Here, it seems as though a storyteller with distinctive facial hair is giving a performance to a crowded group of people. I find it interesting that this crowd of people contains all types of people, from children to commoners to monks (top left of the crowd; identifiable by the distinctive hair/head style). This calls to mind a passage from Ebrey’s Chinese Civilization, Chapter 41, “Attractions of the Capital”, about entertainment centers: “entertainment centers… are places where people gather and are just as easily dispersed… in the old capital the entertainment centers were places where many dissipated people – scholars as well as commoners—gathered”, and it goes on to describe the types of storytellers that performed there. Although that passage was written years later about institutions in the Southern Capital (not depicted in the scroll), I hypothesize that the storytellers performing in entertainment centers and teahouses in the southern capital are similar to the storyteller performing here. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it was indeed during the Song dynasty period that oral storytelling in the vernacular rose to popularity, becoming a main source of entertainment in the main districts of Kaifeng and Hangzhou, even for monks (as depicted in the scroll). This location in particular seems ideal in attracting a large audience, given the bustling intersection and the variety of shops and food stands nearby , some of which are indicated by the large signs posted up to the right of the crowd, including a pastry shop, a wine shop, and a shop specializing in lamb. Just across the street is also an inn for hosting travelers who likely are immediately drawn to the crowd upon exiting their stay.