Zong Bing, a famous painter in China's Jin and Song dynasties, put forward the

Zong Bing's "Preface to Landscape Painting" puts forward the function of the art of landscape painting, that is to say, he believes that the image of natural landscape can give people spiritual pleasure and enjoyment of beauty. The theory of "freeing the spirit" enriched the theoretical system of Chinese painting.

Zong Bing (375 A.D.-443 A.D.), known as Shao Wen (少文), was a native of Neiyang, Nanyang County (present-day Zhenping County, Henan Province), and was a painter of the Song Dynasty. He lived in Jiangling (present-day Hubei) and was a member of the scholarly family. From the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the middle of Yuanjia in Song Dynasty, the authorities repeatedly asked him to become an official, but he did not accept. He was good at calligraphy, painting and playing the zither. He believed in Buddhism and participated in the "White Lotus Society" presided over by Huiyuan, a monk from Mount Lu, and wrote "Theory of Ming Buddha". Wandering mountains and rivers, west of Jingwu, south of Heng Yue, after old age and illness, before returning to Jiangling. He painted the scenery he saw during his travels on the wall of his apartment, calling himself: "Clarifying the mind and observing the Way, lying down to swim". Author of "painting landscape preface".