Ten Thousand Li Along the Yangzi River

One of the earliest surviving paintings to depict the full length of the Yangzi River, this long handscroll--measuring around sixteen and a half meters (54 feet)--shows a bird's-eye view of the river from its source in the Min Mountains to the Yellow Sea. Place names written in red ink allow the painting to serve as a kind of map. As with most traditional Chinese maps, south is at the top and north at the bottom; east, or downriver, is at left, while west, or upriver, is at right.

Flowing sixty-three hundred kilometers (3,780 miles) through eight Chinese provinces and ending at the port city of Shanghai, the Yangzi is among the longest and mightiest rivers on earth. Modern geographers place its source in the Central Asian plateau of Qinghai Province, while Chinese tradition considers the Min River in Sichuan Province to be its starting point. From the confluence of these two main branches in central Sichuan, the Yangzi rushes eastward to the Wu Mountains, where it surges through magnificent canyons--collectively known as the Three Gorges--on its descent to the flatlands below. The river then proceeds at a more stately pace, passing large lakes and joined by numerous tributaries, until it finally enters the sea.

To learn more about this and similar objects, visit http://www.asia.si.edu/SongYuan/default.asp Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy.