... In 1954 Chinese scholars announced the discovery of a previously unknown scroll in the Beijing Palace Museum, where it had been returned from Manchuria after World War II. It was entitled Qingming shanghe tu 清明上河圖. Most scholars now accept this as the earliest extant version of the scroll ... and date it to the twelfth century.

This scroll, which appears above and throughout this teaching module is often referred to as the “Beijing Qingming scroll” because it is in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. Painted during the Song dynasty by the artist Zhang Zeduan, this scroll is believed to be the earliest extant version of the famous Qingming shanghe tu 清明上河圖, of which there are many versions. Widely considered to be China’s best-known painting (it has even been called “China’s Mona Lisa”), this rarely displayed 12th-century scroll was briefly on view in Hong Kong in July 2007.

Full length version (2.4 mb)

Color replica (2.5 mb)