It was put forward by Dong Qichang in the Ming Dynasty in his book Painting Purpose. He believed that the Northern School was a father-son painting landscape, which spread to Zhao Nuo, Zhao Boju and even Ma Yuan Xia (Gui) in Song Dynasty. Mosuo (Wang Wei), the king of the Southern Zong Dynasty, began to use the method of expressing lightness and changing rhyme, and spread it to, Jing (Hao), Guan (Tong), Dong (Yuan), Ju (Ran), Guo Zhongshu, Mijia and his son, and even to the four great masters of the Yuan Dynasty.
China literati painting sprouted in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Over the past 400 years, due to the prosperity of literati thought, it broke through the complicated exegesis of Han and Tang dynasties and presented a new trend of thought, which was unconventional and unconventional. Nothing is more outstanding and brilliant than painting. Literati painting is also different from college painting. The institutional painting system was the most prosperous in the past dynasties, especially in the Song Dynasty. Let's distinguish it from literati painting first.
Background of North-South Sectarian Theory:
According to the identity, painting methods and styles of painters, he divided the development of painting from Tang Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty into two factions. He thinks that Nanzong is a literati painting and Beizong is an expert painting. He advocated literati painting Southern Sect and despised experts painting Northern Sect.
In the theory of the North-South School, Dong Qichang also has some contradictions and different standards, and his evaluation of the literati and painters of the South School is also mixed, reflecting the theoretical confusion. At the same time as Dong Qichang, Chen Jiru, Mo Shilong and Shen Hao also advocated or supported the theory of the North-South School. They echoed each other and had an impact on the development of painting in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Refer to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-On North and South Schools