Hao Jing and Guan Tong mainly describe the real scene of the Central Plains, so they are called "Northern School". Hao Jing is good at landscape painting and a theorist. He has made unique achievements in the complete landscape painting techniques, and is a great painter who has contributed to the ancient art history of China. Guan Tong is a disciple of Hao Jing. His achievements in painting surpassed those of his teachers, and he created his own unique artistic style, which is called "Guan Jia Shan Shui". His landscape paintings embody Hao Jing's theory and reflect the characteristics of northern landscape. The brushwork is extraordinary and the public power is extremely deep. Dong Yuan and Ju Ran mainly describe the real scene in the south of the Yangtze River, calling it "Southern School". Dong Yuan's landscape painting is the most characteristic of Jiangnan scenery, and it adopts the technique of "the rocks are covered with hemp", which has the style of western European landscape painting. Ju Ran, a student of Dong Yuan, is good at painting lush landscapes in the south of the Yangtze River. The theme is mostly taken from the rivers and lakes scenery in the hilly areas of the south of the Yangtze River, and it inherits the traditional techniques of Dong Yuan, which is original. Since the Tang Dynasty, their painting styles have changed obviously and become a bridge between tang style and Song Ge.
The four famous painters in the Southern Song Dynasty refer to Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui in the history of China painting.
From Li Tang and Liu Songnian to Ma Yuan and Xia Xuan, a unique landscape painting was formed in the Southern Song Dynasty. This "one-and-a-half" composition leaves a large blank in the picture, which makes the picture and scenery more concise, the theme is distinct and prominent, and the artistic conception is complete. This is a composition style highly refined by the "Four Schools in the Southern Song Dynasty" on the basis of summarizing the previous painting experience, which makes the picture and scenery integrated and poetic. From the political point of view, it is biased and unfounded to think that the off-angle landscape of the Southern Song Dynasty is a reflection of the "residual water and mountains" in the Southern Song Dynasty. After the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty's college paintings, represented by the "Four Schools of the Southern Song Dynasty", did not disappear, but remained hidden among the people until the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, which had a far-reaching impact on the Ming Dynasty's college paintings.