Painting in Song Dynasty showed unprecedented richness, exquisiteness and realism. Paintings in this period are further divided into landscapes, flowers and birds, figures, religious paintings and miscellaneous paintings. Due to the diversity of painting styles and themes, the techniques and theories of ink painting reached a peak with the development of landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting in the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty. During this period, famous artists came forth in large numbers: the works of famous landscape painters such as Hao Jing, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui had a far-reaching influence on later generations. In terms of flower-and-bird painting, with the spread of thematic paintings such as ink bamboo and ink plum by literati such as Wen Tong, Su Shi and Mi Fei (which kept pace with Lan and Ming in the late Southern Song Dynasty), "literati painting" which advocated subjective interest and interest in pen and ink form began to rise, such as the traditional ink painting "Eight Buddies in the Old Song Dynasty", which opened up a new road for the development of ink painting in later generations. Xu Xi pioneered the "wild escape" ink form, and his grandson Xu Zongsi developed the "boneless method" ink flower and bird among the people following his ancestral business. Of course, ink painting has also made new progress in figure painting in Song Dynasty. For example, Kai Liang's "pen-reduced" paintings, such as The Fairy with Ink Splash and Li Baixing's Singing, have removed the personality characteristics of the poet Li Bai with extremely simple brushstrokes and become one of the most successful figure paintings in the history of painting.
Generally speaking, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty is Bianjing, so the landscape painting of the Northern Song Dynasty focuses on shaping the landscape image of Guanluo area on both sides of the Yellow River, which is vigorous and tall, and won the bone method of Qin Long landscape. In addition, Mi Fei and his son showed the misty Midian landscape in the south of the Yangtze River ("Spring Mountain Ruisong Map" and "Xiaoxiang Wonder Map"), and Wang Ximeng's magnificent turquoise landscape painting ("Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains Map") was the best in a generation.
The change of Jingkang, the Song Dynasty moved south, and the painting center moved south. Painters in the Southern Song Dynasty were deeply impressed by the beautiful mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River. They can swim and lie down. They are eager to follow their hands. Therefore, their painting style changed from steep, vigorous and heavy (Fan Kuan and Guo) in the Northern Song Dynasty to ethereal and beautiful, and they took photos in the forest at night (represented by Xia Gui).