Along the River (39 page)

From the same painting, this detail shows the ornate guardhouse above the city gate described on this page. Some guardhouses also served as drum and bell towers. In ancient times, there were no mechanical clocks. Officials kept time by sundials, water clocks, sand clocks or by burning incense sticks. The public would be notified of the time by the daily beating of drums and bells at regular intervals.

A man with the sleeves of his jacket tied round his waist (front center) stands among a crowd gathered round an animated storyteller who has a luxurious beard and mustache. (This scene is described on this page.) Storytellers have a long tradition in China. They combined classical history with contemporary humor to entertain the audience.

The title of this painting is
Auspicious Dragon Rock
(
Xiang Long Shi
). It was supposedly painted by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (see this page and this page), whose
shou jin
(slender gold) calligraphy can be seen to the left of the rock.

The painting
Ting Qin Tu
(
Listening to Zither Music
) was also presumably painted by Emperor Huizong. It shows the Emperor sitting under a tree and playing the zither to two ministers and a young female attendant. On this page Zhang Ze Duan tells his sister Zhang Mei Lan that he painted the attendant to look just like her, thereby making her famous and immortal. The calligraphy and poetry above the picture was written by Cai Jing
, the Prime Minister under Emperor Huizong.

All images reproduced by kind permission of The Palace Museum, Beijing.

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