Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau

The Southern Song Dynasty, a precarious Dynasty, suffered from the military threats from the powerful northern Jin and Mongolian Yuan Dynasties, but it created a prosperous economy and unique culture. In his travel notes, Marco Polo said that Lin'an, the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty, was "the most beautiful and magnificent Heavenly City in the world" at that time. The blending of the north and the South brought about by the royal family moving to the South created a unique cultural charm. The pursuit of elegant, tranquil and natural aesthetic taste and the pursuit of artistic personality development have become a fashion of Song Dynasty culture. The profound culture of the Song Dynasty, the rulers' own cultural quality and value orientation made a lot of unique artistic works in this period. The French Sinologist Xie Henai even evaluated the Song Dynasty as "China's Renaissance". There are many cultural relics of the Southern Song Dynasty, many of which are still treasures with high cultural connotation.

Southern Song Dynasty, a dream like Dynasty, bloomed in the beautiful south of the Yangtze River, a brilliant and well tempered art flower. The quiet Longquan celadon, the simple Huzhou mirror, the rare Buddhist statues and the numerous early gold and silver coins all reveal a kind of simple and peculiar aesthetic interest. At that time, some art crystals were not only exported overseas as trade commodities, but also supported the economic pillar of the Southern Song Dynasty. Today, these fine arts not only bring us the artistic enjoyment of beauty, but also convey the economic life and social and cultural information of that era.