Liu Hongkuan's Scenes Along the Axis of Old Beijing

By YU HAIDONG

Scenes Along the Axis of Old Beijing by Liu Hongkuan is a portrayal of Beijing in the early 1900s. Measuring 53 meters and incorporating over 5,000 figures, it is believed to be China's longest jiehua or boundary painting (a traditional Chinese art genre that focuses on architecture) covering the widest scope of humanity and types of building. 

The Forbidden City, on the central axis.

Liu, now 64, entered the Beijing Painting Academy straight from high school to study traditional Chinese painting. Several of his paintings have been selected for national fine arts exhibitions, and his works are on display in the Great Hall of the People and Tian'anmen in Beijing, and also at Harvard University.

Qianmen Street, on the south axis.

In order to reproduce on paper the distinctive 1900s Beijing cityscape, its palatial imperial buildings and particular cultural aroma, Liu carried out painstakingly detailed research into old Beijing. In addition to perusing historical documents, he cycled through Beijing's hutongs, ferreting out traces of the city's history, and made up a portfolio of sketches.

Liu Hongkuan's assiduous groundwork has brought striking realism to his painting. The scroll highlights buildings in Beijing that best represent the city's contemporary architectural style and commerce. Tianqiao Peking Opera Theater, Qianmen market, Zhengyang Gate and the Forbidden City constitute the work's architectural backdrop, and the citizens of the capital going about their everyday activities its actors. Scenes of peddlers pushing wheelbarrows and hefting shoulder poles, street martial arts performers, families sitting in siheyuan courtyards enjoying a cool breeze, a funeral procession, and a wedding parade make up a sociological spectrum of Beijing at the beginning of the last century. 

Drum Tower(left) and Bell Tower(right) on the north axis.

                    

In spite of the prodigious amounts of buildings and figures it depicts, the painting in no way repeats itself, due to its studied balance between the "many" and the "few." In the segment devoted to Qianmen market there are a few hundred figures per square chi (1 chi=1/3 meter), yet there is just one traffic policeman in the whole painting. In order to avoid monotony in portraying so many people, Liu intimates their mood by delineating their demeanor rather than detailing their facial features. The people in the painting are expressive through their physical attitude and mode of movement rather than physiognomy.

The painting vividly reproduces the exclusive ethos of Beijing's imperial compound. While the Supreme Harmony, Central Harmony, and Preserving Harmony halls in the Forbidden City are gorgeous and magnificent, their weathered bounding wall is testament to the ravages of time the city has undergone.

Scenes Along the Axis of Old Beijing has been hailed by fine arts critics as a work to be handed down to posterity. It preserves a bygone era and all its connotations of hard sweat and toil, like the old-fashioned trolley bus in Qianmen Street, a charcoal-fueled bus that had to be pushed physically up slopes, a train of camels carrying cargoes, and the 2-meter long-stemmed pipe in Yandai (long-stemmed pipe) Skew Street, to name a few.

The work is acclaimed for its vibrant colors, artistry, stupendous size, and ingenious distribution of buildings and people. It is also significant for its architectural value. Certain architects that it is of great help to them in restoring Beijing's ancient buildings. 

YU HAIDONG is on the staff of the Seamen's Trade Union, All-China Federation of Trade Unions.