Hello, I'm trying to chase up an unreferenced source mentioned in Melbourne Christopher's Illustrated History of Magic.

The bit that I'm interested in is sandwiched between a discussion of the Westcar papyrus (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westcar_Papyrus) and an apocryphal account of the Beni Hasan 'cups and balls.'

He mentions "A long Chinese scroll painting, made about two thousand years ago, shows a magician working behind a table on a raised platform; he is one of many outdoor entertainers at the annual Ch'ing Ming festival." (Chapter 2, page 9).

Anyone know what exactly he's referring to there?

Thanks very much in advance,

-Matt

If you discount the reference to the scroll being two thousand years old, which you must because the Ch'ing Ming or Qingming Festival was first instituted in 732 AD, what it sounds like Christopher was referring to was the 12th century panorama by Zhang Zeduan entitled "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co......Ming.jpg

Clicking on the image enlarged it in my browser.

If this is from Zhang Zeduan's scroll, where is this magician?