This article examines the “compromise spirit” (zhezhong jingshen) of the Lingnan School of Painting and its relevance to the innovation of contemporary shanshui painting. Beginning with the “art revolution” launched in early twentieth-century Guangdong by Gao Jianfu, Chen Shuren and Gao Qifeng, the author identifies compromise between Chinese and Western, ancient and modern art as the core of Gao Jianfu’s “modern concept of painting”. This spirit is analysed in terms of content, as an engagement with the spirit of the times seen in works such as Gao Jianfu’s Flames of the Eastern Battlefield, Guan Shanyue’s Newly Opened Highway and Li Xiongcai’s Flood Prevention in Wuhan, and in terms of method, as a dialectical synthesis that rejects both total Westernization and mere adherence to tradition. The article then follows the transmission of this spirit through later generations linked to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and through contemporary artists such as Chen Zhenguo, Li Jinkun, Yu Li and Chen Peng. The author concludes that the Lingnan School should be understood not as a regional style but as an enduring spirit of innovation and transcendence.