"Ancient Painting Pinglu" first puts forward the purpose of painting: "to express admonitions, to express ups and downs, to be lonely for thousands of years, and to learn from pictures." This means that: through true description, we can receive The effect of education. The emergence of this theoretical understanding is a progressive phenomenon.

Xie He's "Records of Ancient Paintings" is an important work handed down from generation to generation in the history of Chinese painting. In the book, he criticized the works of 27 painters of the previous generation, which is almost the first systematic summary in the history of Chinese painting creation. Among them, the "Six Methods" theory proposed by him is particularly wonderful and has a profound influence on the creation of ancient Chinese paintings. The importance of the comments on painters in "Ancient Paintings" also lies in the preservation of valuable historical materials. After him, there were "Continued Paintings" by Yao Zui of the Chen Dynasty, "After Paintings" by Li Sizhen of the Tang Dynasty, and "Records of Later Paintings" by Seng Yantai. This began the earliest writings on the history of Chinese painting. By the Tang Dynasty , compiled by Zhang Yanyuan into "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties".