"Visiting the Forbidden City to See Cultural Relics: 50 National Treasure-level Paintings in the Forbidden City Collection" Publisher: China Women's Publishing House

The Palace Museum, a world-famous treasure house of ancient art, houses more than 1.8 million precious cultural relics of various types. Among them, more than 150,000 paintings cover works of various eras and categories since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The most brilliant of them are the masterpieces of famous artists that opened the trend of the times and influenced future generations. We carefully selected 50 pieces from them, which are balanced in the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and are complete in the categories of figures, flowers and birds, and landscapes. Together, they are a minimalist history of Chinese painting, which we solemnly introduce to young people who like traditional culture. Most of these selected works were collected by the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty, or were purchased and transferred to the Palace Museum by the Cultural Relics Bureau after the founding of New China. Except for a very small number of early copies, they are all recognized authentic works of famous artists, representing the development direction of painting art in their respective eras. They have long been regarded as classics and widely circulated. The story of each famous painting can write a thick book. It is indeed a big challenge to present its wonderful fragments in just three or four hundred words. In this popular booklet, I strive to make the text concise, the information accurate, and the artistic characteristics clearly summarized. Reading is like hiking in the mountains, and you must know the beauty of the hills and valleys. Let us use the collection of the Palace Museum as a boat and start the journey of Chinese painting together!