Song Dynasty is a veritable high point in the history of China painting, because it made bold innovations in landscape painting, flower-and-bird painting and figure painting, and made brilliant achievements. In addition, it has a rich spiritual realm beyond painting, conveying a full literati charm.

Then, I discussed the conditions for the emergence of the high point of painting in Song Dynasty from three aspects: the ruling class, the literati class and Neo-Confucianism, which made me not only have a deeper understanding of the relationship between painting and society, but also cut into the social panorama of Song Dynasty from different angles from an artistic point of view, and got in touch with the broader scenery and meteorology of Song people.

Finally, the author discusses the reasons why China's paintings declined after the Song Dynasty. The author found that only paintings with "verve" can deeply impress us and attract the attention of predecessors and future generations for a long time. The gradual popularity and wide use of streamlined and patterned paintings and freehand brushwork paintings are important factors that cause the decline of China's paintings.

To sum up, the Song Dynasty was indeed the high point of China's painting and the turning point towards decline.

The reason why painting in Song Dynasty became a high point was closely related to its special social situation. In short, it can be summed up in the following three levels: first, at the level of the ruling class, the rulers value literature over martial arts and admire painting; Second, at the level of literati class, the literati group pursues the aesthetic thought of elegant life; Third, the complete and developed philosophical system of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty. These factors together pushed the painting of Song Dynasty to a new height.

First of all, at the level of the ruling class, the idea of governing the country by culture promoted the prosperity of literature and art throughout the Song Dynasty, and made China's paintings mature, reaching an unprecedented height in the Song Dynasty. Since Song Taizu and Zhao Kuangyin established the regime of the Song Dynasty, the rulers of the Song Dynasty were very afraid of force. In addition, Song Taizu set an ancestral motto of not killing literati, so the rulers of the Song Dynasty strongly advocated the civil service system, and all departments from the imperial court to the border defense took civil servants as important positions.

It can be said that the painting in Song Dynasty was deeply influenced by the culture at that time and formed a systematic philosophy and aesthetic thought from top to bottom.

Emperors of all ages were good at artistic creation. Song Huizong, Song Gaozong and Song Taizong like painting and calligraphy, and the imperial court also likes elegant painting very much. This environment in which rulers love art has spawned a perfect painting academy system and a large number of professional painters.

In the Southern Tang Dynasty, Li Jing set up the Hanlin Painting Academy in Jinling Palace, with such posts as imperial edict and emperor. Ordinary people can be employed by the Academy of Painting with their painting ability and enjoy the salary. They still respect the system of the Academy of Painting in Song Huizong. It is precisely because the rulers attach great importance to the development of the painting academy that the painting academy is large in scale, with 50 or 60 painters on the roster and many anonymous ones. Generally speaking, the Song Dynasty Painting Academy was full of talented people, famous artists came forth in large numbers, active in artistic thinking and exquisite in painting, among which the representative work was "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains".