Visitors at the national archives in Beijing. [Photo by Yang Yang/China Daily]

　　On the afternoon of June 1, in his visit to the China National Archives of Publications and Culture, when President Xi Jinping walked into the national study and examined the bookcases, a set of A Complete Collection of Paintings of the Song Dynastydrew his attention.

　　In 2005, as Secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, Xi approved the project in person, and had been supporting it since then.

　　Looking at the set, Xi said, "This was a project under the supervision of Zhang Xi from Zhejiang University. I was working in Zhejiang at that time. First it was A Complete Collection of Paintings of the Song Dynasty, then the project expanded to be A Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Chinese Paintings. It was not only a local project in Zhejiang, but had extensive cooperation with institutions from home and abroad".

　　Chu Di, vice-president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said in a previous interview, that A Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Chinese Paintingspresents a relatively complete picture of the evolutionary process of Chinese ancient painting art, and profoundly displays the cultural texture of the Chinese nation.

　　As the biggest collection of images of Chinese ancient paintings reproduced in high quality, the book also provides great materials for art students.

　　To uphold tradition and seek innovation, we need to further explore the elements in traditional culture and innovatively employ them, so the book is very important for the inheritance and development of Chinese painting art, says Zhang Lichen, professor from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.