This painting truly depicts the grand occasion of spring inside and outside Bianjing City, and reflects the society, politics, economy, culture and art at that time, especially the life and customs of the citizens from different angles.
First of all, this painting reflects the relatively relaxed political situation at that time. It is not difficult to see from the bustling scene of Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty that the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival was written to celebrate the peaceful and prosperous times. It is true that the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty broke the separatist regime in various places during the Five Dynasties, and formed an antagonistic situation between the landlord regime of the Northern Song Dynasty and the slave-owner regime of Qidan (Liao), the late Jin Dynasty and the Xixia regime that existed between them. After the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the recovery and development of agricultural production, handicrafts (such as textile handicrafts and ceramics) have also been highly developed. In addition, the improvement of waterway transportation, the development of domestic market, the rise of overseas trade, the density of urban population and the enhancement of consumption have all promoted the formation of a metropolis like the capital. In the early and middle period of Song Huizong's reign, because of the relative stability of the Song Dynasty, he loved painting too much and asked little about state affairs, which consciously or unconsciously formed a political situation of "governing by doing nothing". Although this kind of situation has endless future troubles, it has certain benefits in the contemporary world, making the development of economy, culture and art in a relatively relaxed state. Although the works avoided Jinming Pool, the most prosperous city in Beijing at that time, we can see from a glimpse that the Bianhe River, which was intercepted by the Watergate in the east, was prosperous in Hongqiao, which already reflected the general social, political and economic situation at that time.
Secondly, the prosperity of the market reflects the economic development at that time. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival takes the traditional festival of Tomb-Sweeping Day as the time background, the banks of the Bianhe River near the East Hongqiao of Shuimen as the actual geographical location, the rural areas, Hongqiao and Chengguan as the plots, and the civic activities such as "going out of the suburbs", "going to the river", "going to the market" and "sweeping the graves" as the themes, and describes the social grand occasion at that time in detail. According to the custom, Tomb-Sweeping Day has a full holiday. In addition to going to the grave, people also play around, shopping, visiting, chatting, gathering, or in groups of three or five, or a happy family. People are everywhere, singing and dancing, full of vitality. Judging from the scale of its building, the population along the Bianhe River is definitely more than that depicted in the painting. Due to the requirement of simplicity and density of the picture, the painter specially made appropriate treatment. At the same time, it also provides a useful reference for future generations to understand the economic situation and science and technology of the society at that time. Another example is the exquisite description of buildings, ships, tools, costumes and commodities, which is of great value to our technical understanding and reference today.
Thirdly, The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival represents the standard and epitome of that era in terms of its own artistic value and the all-encompassing content it depicts. The Song Dynasty, especially the Northern Song Dynasty, is a historical period of unprecedented development of material culture and spiritual culture. The development of urban economy and culture in Song Dynasty opened up a new creative field for painting art at that time, and the rich content of urban life became a new theme for painters to describe. As a result, a genre painting team that is good at painting the daily life of ordinary residents and integrates figures, landscapes and flowers and birds came into being. In this creative team, there are not only famous painters Yan Wengui, Gao, Wang and Ye Ren, but also famous painters in the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Songnian, Zhu Li, and a large number of anonymous folk painters. Of course, the most influential and representative painter is Zhang Zeduan, whose work is The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. The genre paintings in the shops reflected the social features of the city at that time, adapted to the needs of the development of commodity economy at that time, and catered to the aesthetic taste of the emerging citizen class, so they were welcomed by the masses and gradually recognized and appreciated by the imperial rulers. By the Tang Dynasty, China's painting art had reached a fairly high level, regardless of figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, but the subjects of figure painting were mostly religion, royalty, nobles, literati and ladies, and rarely reflected the scenes of working people and social activities. In the Song Dynasty, painting gradually faced the society and moved towards life. Therefore, the appearance of the genre painting of shops and its classic work The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival has its historical inevitability.