4 ideas
Xie He ranked six criteria for judging painting: spirit resonance (qiyun shengdong), bone method in brushwork, fidelity to objects in form, conformity to type in color, planning of placement, and transmission by copying models. The order is a ranking.
Song literati critics such as Guo Ruoxu argued that spirit resonance cannot be acquired through skill. It comes from the painter's inborn character and cultivation. Because brushwork records the person, a painting's quality depends on the moral and intellectual refinement of its maker, and technical virtuosity alone marks a mere artisan.
Guo Xi defined three perspectives for composing mountains. High distance looks up from the foot toward the peak. Deep distance looks from the front into layered ranges behind. Level distance looks across from a near mountain to far ones. Each produces a different emotional effect, so the painter can move the viewer's eye through space without a single fixed vanishing point.
Su Shi wrote that judging a painting by its resemblance to the subject shows a child's understanding. This view shifted evaluation from how accurately a painting represents its subject to what it expresses of the painter's mind.