The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival shows the prosperity of southern commerce. The picture shows that the business district is busy and people come and go, which shows that the business prosperity exceeds that of the previous generation.
From the vast fields in The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, we can see the development of agriculture in Song Dynasty: Zhancheng Rice, an excellent variety introduced from Vietnam in Song Dynasty, was quickly popularized in the south of the Yangtze River, which promoted the development of agriculture; Suzhou and Huzhou in Taihu Lake basin have become important granaries, "Suzhou and Lake are ripe, and the world is full"; Rice jumped to the top of grain output in Song Dynasty, and the main producing area was in the south, indicating the prosperity of the south. Cotton is widely planted, extending from Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian to the Yangtze River basin. The cultivation of tea trees in the Song Dynasty also developed greatly, and many tea gardens were newly opened in the hilly areas of the south of the Yangtze River.
From their clothing, food and shelter, the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival reflects the Song Dynasty: (1) Officials at all levels have strict rules on color, and the people only wear black and white clothes. Workers often wear small sleeve's narrow short clothes. (2) The picture shows that people's houses are mostly low huts, noble houses are magnificent, with a front hall and a back bedroom, with wing rooms and side yards on both sides. (3) Most people use ox carts and donkey carts, which shows the lack of horses in the Song Dynasty. When dignitaries go out in sedan chairs, scholars usually ride donkeys and mules.
From The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, we can also see that people have many recreational activities and folk activities due to the development and prosperity of commodity economy and the growth of the civil class in Song Dynasty. In terms of entertainment, people are crowded in the entertainment and commercial places in Tokyo, which are called "tiles". A circle dedicated to performance is circled in the tile, which is called "Goulan". In folk customs, traditional festivals in Song Dynasty include Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. The Song Dynasty called the Spring Festival New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve, customs such as offering sacrifices to ancestors, greeting the gods and offering sacrifices to the Buddha, hanging New Year pictures, putting up "peach symbols" and observing the old age have all appeared.
From the above social features of the Song Dynasty, we can know that the economic center of the Song Dynasty moved southward, and we can see the prosperous business, convenient life, busy land and water transportation and prosperous urban life in Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty ~