Introduction
"Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is a masterpiece of realistic genre painting, with many copies of it being done over the centuries. This version, a collaborative effort of five Qing court artists: Chen Mei, Sun Hu, Jin Kun, Dai Hong and Cheng Zhidao, was completed in 1736, the first year of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign. Known as the "Qing court version," the handscroll is quite rich, following the styles and contents of previous versions. With its bright coloring and mature brushwork, the ruled-line representation of the architecture and the rendering of the figures are fine and exact, and it is an invaluable source of study for both later Ming and Qing society and customs.