Scroll Showcase: Daily Life in the 12th Century

Join Curator, Rare East Asian collection, Shiqiu Liu as she unrolls and reveals details in the 12th century Song dynasty scroll “Up the River during Qingming” (Qingming shang he tu). While this scroll seems to depict the daily life of ordinary people along the canal and in the markets, it remains contested whether the scroll was a faithful recreation of life, or rather just an imagined society under a sage ruler. Nearly every aspect of the scroll has been questioned by scholars with no final conclusion reached. Through a detailed examination, the curator will attendees to answer the question: is the world that the scroll shows to us the real world of China in the twelfth century?

"Up the River during Qingming" forms part of the Rare East Asian collection. The collection holds over 20,000 items ranging from the 17th to the 21st century, on topics such as history, literature, fine arts, traditional medicine, religion, linguistics, education, gender studies, politics, architecture, craft and design. It consists of books, scrolls, realia, stone rubbings, and ephemera, and is home to four major collections: The Harry Simon Collection, The Thomas Chong Collection, The R.F. Price Collection, and The Valery Garrett Collection.

This program forms part of the programming for Here Lives Our Culture, currently on display on Level 1 , Baillieu Library. The exhibition continues until 15 June 2024.