The Bustling and Hustling of Nanjing, With Image Downloads in All Sizes [CN:南都繁会图]

Quality	Width × Height (Pixel)	Download Link
Standard Quality	1536 × 194	Right click the image above to download
Original Art Quality	15836 × 2000	Google Drive

Painter: Qiu Ying

From right to left, the scroll can be roughly divided into three parts-“Countryside”, “Market” and“Court”. The third part is separated from the previous two by the city wall. According to the researchers, there are a group of mountains, four rivers, nine roads, five bridges, more than 30 buildings, 19 ships, 109 types of shop signs and more than 1000 people.

First, let’s look at the far right side of the scroll. On the far right is the outskirts of Nanjing, a landscape of springtime countryside dotted with pink peach blossoms where farmers toil, fetching water or carrying firewood. On the main road to the city, two soldiers could be seen patrolling with spears, followed by a group of attendants carrying palanquins for officials dressed in red robes. The farther to the left, the closer to the city, rice shops, pig shops, sheep shops, cattle shops, chicken and duck shops, textile shops begin to show in the scene, shop owners are busy doing the work in hand, greeting the guests who come to do businesses.

Looking to the center of the picture, the central part can be divided into two sections, the upper section depicts the natural mountain scenery, and the lower section depicts the bustling urban landscape. In the picture, stone-paved roads crisscross the scene, with various buildings on both sides—shops, restaurants, tea houses, pawnshops, private banks, portrait studios, painting workshops, open-air stages, bath houses, government offices, temples, and residential houses, etc, are scattered throughout. The road is crowded with pedestrians, carriages, and various tall signs. A small river runs through the center of the picture, showing the prosperity of the Jiangnan water town.

Four archways(Paifang) are shown in the picture, three of them which has relatively clear writing from left to right is respectively “Beishi Street”“Nanshi Street”“Xiugun”.

Between these archways lay the most prosperous streets of Nanjing at that time, not only with a dazzling array of shops, such as“Northwest Fur Shop,” “Wanyuan Silver Exchange,” “Beijing-style Shoes and Boots,” “Liji Chuanguang Groceries,” “Fuguang Seafood Merchant,” “Tongxi Old Shop,” “Engraving Studio,” and “Beijing-style Knife Shop” and so on, full of all kinds of trade, food, costumes, handicrafts, groceries; but also had many folk activities, like stilt walking, acrobatics, dragon and lion dances, martial arts performances, theatrical performances, etc.

Near the “Xiugun” archway stood a magnificent and brilliantly illuminated Aoshan Lantern display.

Looking to the left, apart from the“Beishi Street” archway, was the place where the government offices are located, shops became fewer, and the streets are less crowded, with more officials in black hats(Wushamao) chatting with each other.

The bustling streets and luxuriously dressed people depicted in the scroll show that Nanjing was a major commercial city of the Ming dynasty, filled with diverse markets and dense crowds. It also reflects the prosperity of Sino-foreign trade and the growing extravagance of urban life in the mid-to-late Ming dynasty.

The third part depicts the Ming dynasty palace. Between the palace and the streets, becide winding city walls, the author also painted layers of drifting mist.

The entire palace is faintly visible in the ethereal mists, and there is also a stone monument beneath the city gate saying “Civil and military officials of all ranks must dismount”, it all symbolize the mysterious and inviolable dignity of the imperial power, and the great disparity between the rulers and the common people.

In this grand palace, only the main hall was depicted most clearly, In front of the hall stand several eunuch attendants holding ceremonial staffs, further emphasizing the palace’s austere and solemn atmosphere.

Nanjing was established as the capital by the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the capital was later moved to Beijing by Yongle Emperor Zhu Di. This painting depicts Nanjing after the capital was moved. At that time, Nanjing was the provisional capital of the Ming dynasty. Although there was no real administrative organization in the city, but Nanjing was still the second largest city of the Ming dynasty, it still enjoys convenient transportation, developed industry and prosperous commercial economy like the capital.

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