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 work. 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.
The variation of aesthetic consciousness brought by Yuan Dynasty inevitably had a far-reaching impact on the development of Chinese painting. Generally speaking, ink painting is developed on the basis of literati painting represented by Zhao. In painting theory and creative practice, we attach importance to the painter's subjective will, interest and expression of thoughts and feelings. Zhao advocates the realism of painting, emphasizes the consistency between painting pen and ink and calligraphy, flaunts retro, and advocates the interest of calligraphy pen and ink. As the head of (Zhao, Huang, Wang Meng, Zhenwu, later replaced by Dong Qichang), he led a new round of important changes in ink painting in Yuan Dynasty, got rid of the institutional painting style in Song Dynasty, attached importance to subjective expression, and pursued simple, elegant and profound artistic interest. They used dry brush to wipe instead of wet brush to smear, and gradually replaced silk with paper. Their artistic achievements reflect the creative development of China's painting and play a decisive role in the painting theory and creation in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The overall development trend of ink painting style in Yuan Dynasty is to attach importance to the inheritance of ancient traditions and the innovation of ideas. The outstanding performance is that literati painting began to occupy a dominant position in the painting world. As a result, landscape paintings, dead wood, bamboo stones, plums, orchids, flowers and birds, which are suitable for expressing the consciousness of literati painters, have emerged in large numbers, while the number of people's paintings has decreased relatively. With the prosperity of literati painting, poetry, books and paintings in painting works are further closely combined and become a common fashion. This strengthens the literary interest of Chinese painting and better embodies the national characteristics of Chinese painting.