If Xu Wei is crazy and cool, Tang Bohu is both dazzling and fading, and Wang Wei is disillusioned and silent, then Ni Wei is cool and crazy and calmly and calmly. Born in the family of a large landlord, Ni Zhan was arrogant and arrogant, did not care about politics, was unwilling to manage production, and called himself "Lazy (嬾)瓒", also known as "Ni Fan".
The ancient literati are very noble, but Ni Zhan is indeed an example of an artist who is clean in body and mind, and it is his cleanliness and transparency that posterity has labeled him with various intricacies through the fog of history.
Ni Zhan's Book Collection Qing Secret Cabinet
Just like the cleaner the crystal ball, the more people want to touch it, but eventually they cover his purest radiance.
He is neither hidden nor hidden, wandering in the rivers and lakes, no one else understands him, and he does not want to be understood.
The so-called grand ambition is fierce, not necessarily like the national heroes Yue Fei and Xin Qijie; as a literati, Ni Zhan has always been ridiculed by people as a purity fetish, but we see from another angle that in his heart, the most magnificent and fierce literati style bone.
Ni Zhan "The Scroll of the Mountain Map" Ink and pencil on paper, Shanghai Museum Collection
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Ni Zhan was such a person who was not shocked on the outside and fierce in his heart.
Ni Zhan's "Autumn Ji Diagram of The Fisherman's Village"
Ni Zhan once wrote a poem to describe his nostalgia: "White eyes look at mundane things, clear words and bend the times, rich and noble, and think of the name." In the same way, Huang Binhong also looks thin into a rattan, but in order to support the revolution, he can also privately mint coins to help the revolution.
Ni Zhan's "Autumn Pavilion Jiashu Diagram" (partial)
No matter what era, minting coins privately is illegal and risks killing! Ni Zhan's situation was the same when he rejected the warlord.
When you meet a bastard warlord who likes to play Ling Chi, you can cut his little cleaning habit into a blurred pork belly at any time, but what gives Ni Zhan such a full confidence? It is under the dusty and unstainable appearance of the weak, clean literati style bones! Kill me and don't paint you, and kill me without a word!
"Ni Zhan Painting Book", collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
In fact, every stroke and painting of the artist comes from the heart, the personality realm is not high, and the calligraphy and painting works will also be popular. When we lament Ni Zhan's realm of calligraphy and painting, we actually look up at his spiritual realm.
Ni Zhan's arrogance and loftiness, through his paintings, have left a glorious mark on history: he does not like to color the paintings or stamp them (the seals in the paintings are all stamped by posterity).
Ni Zhan Shuzha
Moreover, only the landscape is painted, never people, at most a pavilion. Someone once asked him why he didn't paint people, and he replied, "Where are the characters today?" "It can be seen that he has become arrogant to the point of cuteness."
Later, Ni Zhan's beloved wife Jiang Shi died of illness, and Ni Zhan was greatly hit. The eldest son died early, the second son was not filial piety, and the more lonely and lonely life became, the more troubled and depressed in his heart, he was at a loss.
Ni Zhan to Mao Shi Shuzha
Ni Zhan "Lin Ting Yuanxiu Diagram Axis" and local diagram
Compared with the envy of calligraphers and painters for the market and collectors now, the people who squeeze their heads and become painters in the system, Ni Zhan's arrogant literati style and bones until his death, can not be described as fierce!
This actually explains what a true aristocrat is, even if the country farmer, even if the material poverty is sloppy, as long as the personality is clean, then such a country farmer is also a spiritual nobleman!
Ni Zhan Kai's Book of Jing Ji Xuan Poetry Scrolls
For Ni Zhan, he has never been poor in his life, he has integrated Taoist philosophy into his painting theory, and the cleanliness of his personality is more stringent than his external cleanliness! So no matter how his circumstances change in his life, in art, he is always an aristocrat!
At that time, Zhao Mengfu, a leader in the literary circles of the Yuan Dynasty, put forward the concept of "the same origin of calligraphy and painting". In this big context, the calligraphy and painting artists of the Yuan Dynasty may have surpassed their predecessors in terms of skills, but they were all double practitioners of calligraphy and painting. Among them, the far-reaching influence on future generations and the praise of the world cannot but mention YunlinZi Ni Zhan.
Ni Zhan's "Poetry of the Light Room"
Another proof of his literati style is the Wei and Jin style in his calligraphy. Wen Zhengming commented on his calligraphy: "Mr. Ni has a high personality, and his Hanzha Yiyi has a Jin and Song dynasty atmosphere. Dong Qichang also said: "Ancient light and naïve, rice fool (that is, rice fu) is only one person." As a high-ranking rhymer in the opposition, Ni Zhan participated in the Zen Tao, wandered the world, and wrote his unique style of simplicity and sparseness, dry and light with a rhyme of ice and snow.
Once when eating and drinking together, Yang used Ge Ji's shoes to drink wine, known for his cleanliness, Ni Shenzhi, originally Ni Zhan had a lot of criticism of Yang Weizhen's calligraphy, and as a result, after this battle, the two broke off friendship from then on...
Ni Zhan Bamboo Branch Picture Scroll Collection of the Palace Museum
In the Yuan Dynasty, Taoist culture prevailed, and Huang Gongwang, Ni Zhan, and others all believed in Taoism. Ni Zhan's calligraphy is relatively low-key in various homes. The so-called low-key means that there is no open opening and closing like Zhao Mengfu and XianYushu.
Ni Zhan's calligraphy is mostly seen in small letters, especially the inscriptions on the paintings. From the early to the late years of Ni Zhan's calligraphy, the whole process is from clean to "sloppy". The early characters are elegant, clean and neat, and square, while the works of later years are naïve, casual and natural, and more "sloppy".
Therefore, Ni Zhan's words do not have cleanliness, but are more wild. The contrast between thickness and thinness and the broken relationship of knots give people a kind of quaint meaning visually. Compared with the painting, Ni Zhan's writing is still in the state of wearing a shawl and not trimming the edges.
Ni Zhan's "Inscription on the Knee"
The strokes of each word are also so undefined, curved, crooked, thick and thin, and square, which seem to reflect the yin-yang relationship of traditional Chinese art everywhere. In fact, sometimes the magic is inadvertent, not deliberate, unintentional, and the premise of all this is skill. There are not many painters whose words can be valued by later generations of scholars, and Ni Zhan is one of them.
Tomb of Ni Zhan
Born in a Taoist family, he was exposed to Taoism at an early age and embraced Quanzhen Buddhism in middle age. In the 20 years from 1353 to his death, Ni Zhan, a once-wealthy landowner, scattered his family property and roamed around Taihu Lake. Such a great realm is fierce in the eyes of anyone! Only a high personality like Ni Zhan, who is really clean in body and mind, can do it!
Ni Zhan once had a poem "Title Zheng Suo Nanlan" Yun: "The autumn wind Lan Huibi is Mao, and the desolate atmosphere of the southern country has disappeared." Only sonam's heart did not change, and the fountain of tears and ink were written away. ”
Ni Zhan's "Ink bamboo map" album Collection of the Freer Museum of Art, USA
In Ni Zhan's life, although the Iron Horse Glacier did not dream, he used the autumn wind Lanhui to fight against the darkness, impermanence and evil customs of the great era, but he never lost his integrity!
For hundreds of years, he has a fierce literary style, but he has never lost his glory due to the fading of the times, but has been more timeless, reflecting the weakness of us modern people, but also giving us the cleanest and purest inspiration! So we also have reason to believe that what is more noble than art is the cleanliness of personality.
Source/Yueya Calligraphy and Painting
Editor-in-Charge/Xuan Xuan