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Han (Chinese)
- Feb 12
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 18
Also the Hanzu or Han people. The world’s largest ethnic group and the original Chinese tribe that descended from the Huaxia. “Huaxia” (meaning “beautiful grandness”) is a historical concept representing the Chinese nation. It emerged from the self-awareness of a shared cultural ancestry by the various confederations of agricultural tribes, Hua and Xia, who settled along the Central Plains around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in northern China. Huaxia means the “civilized Xia people” in contrast to the “Yi” (or sometimes “Hu”), meaning “barbarians,” “foreigners,” or generally, the uncivilized nomadic peoples. China is also known as Zhongguo, meaning “Central State” or “Middle Kingdom.” From this emerged the designation Zonghua, the compound word formed by Zhongguo and Huaxia.
![Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145). Along the River during the Qingming Festival. [detail of the original version], c. early 12th century. The painting is considered the most renowned work among all Chinese paintings, and it has been called "China's Mona Lisa." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Along_the_River_During_the_Qingming_Festival](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ebdc2c_2e337f373f4d4e4985fcd359091ea152~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_490,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/ebdc2c_2e337f373f4d4e4985fcd359091ea152~mv2.jpg)
Further reading:
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2026, March 18). "Chinese Sculpture during the Han Dynasty examined" [Video]. A discussion of Chinese art, from the documentary China: West Meets East at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner).
SmartHistory. "Chinese Landscape Painting" by the British Museum.
National Palace Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan. All that Flourishes under the Brush. The Late Ming Culturati Wang Shizhen and his Endeavors. [Exhibitions in 2022 and 2023].
National Palace Museum, Beijing, China. Website in Chinese (the English version currently does not allow searching for Zhang Zeduan's Along the River during the Qingming Festival.) Translation of the relevant description from Chinese to English (with Deepl): https://www.dpm.org.cn/fully_search/张择端/故宫博物院.
*Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, scroll, Northern Song Dynasty, by Zhang Zeduan, on silk, in light colors, 24.8 cm high, 528 cm wide.
*Along the River During the Qingming Festival* depicts the bustling and lively scenes inside and outside the Dongjiao Gate and along both banks of the Bian River in Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, during the Qingming Festival. The entire painting can be divided into three sections:
The first section depicts the suburban landscape, with low-slung thatched roofs and crisscrossing fields, amidst which people come and go.
The middle section centers on the “Shangtu Bridge,” depicting the Bian River and the scenery along its banks. The grand, rainbow-like wooden bridge in the center, commonly known as the “Rainbow Bridge” and officially named “Shangtu Bridge,” serves as a convergence point for water and land transportation. On the bridge, carriages and horses shuttle back and forth like shuttles, merchants crowd the area, and pedestrians throng the scene. Beneath the bridge, a grain transport ship is lowering its mast to pass through the bridge’s arch, and the steersmen’s frantic efforts have drawn a large crowd of onlookers.
The latter section depicts the city streets, where shops stand side by side. Large stores are adorned with colorful pavilions and festive gates at their entrances, while small shops are merely open-air stalls. There are also government offices, temples, and Taoist shrines. The streets are packed with people shoulder to shoulder, and carriages, horses, and palanquins flow endlessly. Among the pedestrians were gentlemen, officials, servants, peddlers, errand boys, carriage and palanquin bearers, workshop laborers, storytellers, barbers, doctors, fortune-tellers, noblewomen, itinerant monks, mischievous children, and even beggars. Though their social statuses and attire differed, they all shared the streets, yet their busyness and leisure, as well as their hardships and joys, varied greatly. The city’s transportation included palanquins, camel caravans, oxen, horses, donkey carts, and rickshaws. Vehicles such as linked carts, flatbed carts, and flat-fronted carts further depicted the bustling scene of Bianjing’s streets. The imposing city gate tower, known as the East Corner Gate, was situated in the southeast of Bianjing’s inner city.
The entire scroll is rich and vivid in content, offering a concentrated and generalized depiction of life in Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty at the height of its power in the 12th century.
This painting employs a brushwork style that blends meticulous detail with freehand brushstrokes, featuring subdued and elegant colors. Unlike conventional architectural paintings, it represents a distinct artistic school of its own. The composition adopts a bird’s-eye-view panoramic perspective, realistically yet concisely capturing the typical landscape of the southeastern corner of Bianjing at that time. The artist employs the traditional handscroll format and organizes the composition using “scattered-point perspective.” The composition is lengthy yet not tedious, intricate yet not chaotic; it is meticulously compact, as if executed in a single, fluid stroke. The scenes captured in the painting range from vast, tranquil fields, mighty rivers, and towering city walls to the minutest details—figures in boats and carriages, goods displayed on street stalls, and text on market signs—all rendered with meticulous precision. Within the composition, which features over 500 figures, various narrative elements are interwoven in an orderly yet engaging manner.
The reverse side bears inscriptions by 13 artists, including Jin Zhang and Wu Kuan of the Ming Dynasty, and is stamped with 96 seals.
Cataloged in works such as *The Qinghe Boat of Calligraphy and Painting*, *Records of Summer Retreat in the Year of Gengzi*, and *Records of Calligraphy and Painting from the Shigu Hall*.