The historical period from the Han and Tang to Song and Yuan Dynasties witnessed a great shift in aesthetic style and its features. In particular, Song aesthetics distinguished itself from the buoyant and aggressive characteristics of Tang aesthetics by placing prominence on experiencing emotional pleasure and philosophical rationality in real life. In other words, aesthetics in the Song Dynasty moved much closer to the groundswell of life and leisure while maintaining the pursuit of rationality. People at that time were active in infusing aesthetics into life and finding worldly concerns in aesthetics, which gave rise to the integration of aesthetics and leisure culture. The intimate relationship between aesthetics and life resulted in the rise and boom of leisure culture in the Song Dynasty. This combination of aesthetics and life became a highly soughtafter trend. For instance, the Chinese expression wanwu shiqing(to experience emotional pleasure through leisure life) indicates that the purport of aesthetics is the bidirectional communication between art and life, reflecting peoples identification with leisure culture, the effort for selfamusement and the pursuit of detachment. With regards to the infusion of worldly characteristics into aesthetics and art in the Song Dynasty, we can find a clue in its poetry, Ci, paintings and gardens, room decor, tea ceremony, amusement, etc. Song poems feature the description of trivial things in everyday life, thus revealing the poets inner peace and serenity. Ci goes further in that direction by portraying the subtle charms of life. In Song paintings, the portrayal of ordinary life is blended perfectly into the natural landscape. Meanwhile, as more and more gardens passed into private hands, they were built in a way that was close to life, serving as a perfect shelter for both body and soul, and making a leisure life pattern possible. Men of letters in the Song Dynasty would model their dwelling design on gardens and adopt modest furnishings and household utensils. Teatasting in various forms was popular among scholars in the Song Dynasty, and its popularity obviously had much to do with the rise of leisure culture. In addition, scholars pursuit of emotional pleasure through amusement in the Song Dynasty was much more than pastime; it reflected their elitist taste in leisure. Considered as the ontology of life, leisure signified free life, returning to nature and experiencing self. It was people in the Song Dynasty who attached great importance to leisure which had long been regarded as triviality, and the view to live a leisure life obtained its unprecedented importance. Leisure and amusement were integrated with each other, so that the fundamental way to live a leisure life was to incorporate proper amusement. The objective of aesthetics and leisure for people in the Song Dynasty was to pursue the state above worldly considerations, which on one hand went beyond concrete object, and on the other hand exceeded such concerns as family background, failure or success, praise or blame, and right or wrong. The ultimate state above worldly considerations was actually the leisure of mind as an aesthetic state. The the Song Dynasty was a historical period during which the traditional Chinese leisure culture thrived and matured, and this was what made Song aesthetics special and different from that of Tang and all other dynasties. However, this important point has been ignored in the previous research into the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty. From the perspective of aesthetics in life and traditional Chinese Sages ontology, effort and spiritual state, the authors have undertaken a stepbystep analytical study on the purport and spiritual state of aesthetics in the Song Dynasty.