The visual art of the Song dynasty focused on developing landscape painting to its peak of sophistication. This style came to be known as shan shui style painting ("shan" translates to mountain, and "shui" refers to the river). The importance given to nature as subject matter during the Song period was deeply rooted in Taoism, a chinese philosophy that put emphasis on the contrast between the smallness of human life in context of the large and vast universe around us. In addition, Neo-Confucianist figures of the time often pushed the idea of patterns that emerged from nature and somehow led all social phenomena, establishing a deep connection between the unfolding of social human life and the principles of nature.
As a result, this style of landscape painting consisted of particularly intricate and realistic objects placed in focus, surrounded by contrasting backgrounds that represented qualities of vastness of the universe.
Hope this helps!