Notice how important landscape painting is under the Song dynasty.  What beliefs are shown in these landscapes?  What difference do you see in the styles and how the brush is used?  What do you like best and why?   Can you see the value of the last, fifth “spontaneous” style or do the lines seem too simple?  
In terms of Ming architecture, do you sense the difference between the huge and often repetitive forms of the royal Forbidden City and the more modest homes of the upper middle merchant classes?  What is the message conveyed by the architecture?  Where would you like to live?  How does this compare to our living standards nowadays?