Among the cultural relics prohibited from going abroad for exhibition, there are three pieces of blue-green landscape painting. One is the Spring Excursion by Sui Dynasty painter Zhan Ziqian, created in the late 6th century and believed to be the oldest-surviving landscape painting. The second is A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains by Northern Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng, created when the painter was only 18 years old and reputed as the “sole moon among stars” of all surviving blue-green landscape works.

The third is what we are going to elaborate on today, Golden Palace amidst Myriad Pines by Southern Song Dynasty painter Zhao Bosu. Currently collected in the Palace Museum in Beijing, it depicts a glittering palace hidden in a dreamy pine forest in the Southern Song capital of Lin’an, which is the present-day Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province.