Along the River During the Qingming Festival Symbol Analysis

A famous Chinese painting dating from the 11th century, Along the River During the Qingming Festival represents how perception can be misleading. Wang Miao first encounters the painting in a class on information theory, where his teacher compares the detailed artwork to a plain photograph. Wang’s teacher explains that although the painting depicts a bustling environment, and the photograph depicts a blank sky, the photograph—made up of thousands of pixels—actually contains much more information. In other words, what seems complex is actually quite simple, and what seems simple is filled with hidden complexity. And indeed, as the impending Trisolaran invasion forces Wang Miao to question everything he thought he knew, he often reflects that the human world (like the world of the painting) is somehow “superficially complex.” True understanding, Wang fears, belongs only to the Trisolarans.

At the same time, however, Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a spectacular piece of art, made famous for centuries because of it captures human beings in a moment of celebration and community. Unlike on Trisolaris, where the drive to survive has so thoroughly trounced the impulse to create any kind of beauty or festivity, people on Earth still value these things. Thus, even as the painting symbolizes humanity’s failure to understand the true complexity of the universe, it also shows how people continue to find joy in their confusion.