The Palace Museum unveiled “Defining the Classics: A Journey to Tang and Song Calligraphy and Paintings” on September 1. The exhibition, held in the Hall of Literary Brilliance (Wenhua dian), will be open to the public until November 1. The exhibition, two years in the making, highlights first-grade cultural relics and unique heirlooms, covering calligraphy and the major painting genres—landscape, flower-and-bird, and figure paintings. Carefully selected from a vast collection, these works—spanning from the Wei (220-265) and Jin (265-420) to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties—illustrate how these masterpieces came to define those times. The exhibition traces the evolution of brush techniques, offering insight into mainstream thought, social landscape, and humanistic spirit of their respective eras. Of the 107 cultural relics, 103 are taken from the Palace Museum collection and four loaned by the Shanghai Museum, the Shanxi Museum, and the Henan Museum.

Presented in two phases, the exhibition “Defining the Classics: A Journey to Tang and Song Calligraphy and Paintings” consists of five chapters. In phase one, from September 1 to 27, it focuses on calligraphy and painting from the Tang dynasty and the Five Dynasties period (907-960). Phase two presents artworks from the Song dynasty, on view from September 30 to November 1. The exhibition will close on September 28 and 29 for changeover.