Paintings about the Dragon Boat Festival

Since the Tang and Song dynasties, people have held grand celebrations in the Dragon Boat Festival which have been recorded by calligraphers and painters. For example, Dragon Boat Race, kept in the Palace Museum, shows how people celebrated the festival in the palace. The dragon boats in the painting are vivid and elegant.

Dragon Boat race in Jinming Pool (Jin Ming Chi Duo Biao Tu) by Zhang Zeduan, the Song Dynasty

According to Magnificent Dreams in Dongjing (Dongjing Hua Meng Lu), an emperor in the Earlier Song Dynasty (960-1127) watched the dragon boat race in Jinming Pool. There were barges, showboats, cockleshells, pleasure-boats, small dragon boats and tiger head boats. Dragon Boat race in Jinming Pool exhibits the scene above, in which figures are small but clear.

Scroll of Competing for the Championship of a Dragon Boat Race (Long Zhou Duo Biao Tu Juan) by an anonymous author, the Yuan Dynasty

Compete for the Championship of a Dragon Boat Race, drawn by Wu Tinghui in the Yuan Dynasty, is kept at the Taipei Palace Museum. It shows the race of three dragon boats. The major boat is beautifully decorated, and people on the other two boats are waving flags and banging the drum. In the Ming Dynasty, painters Zhang Hong and Zheng Zhong also drew pictures about dragon boat races. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong and Jiaqing often watched dragon boat races in Fuhai in the Old Summer Palace, which was recorded in Scroll of Competing for the Championship of a Dragon Boat Race.

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