Ni Zan was raised by his eldest brother since childhood, and his life was extremely easy and carefree. Ni Zhaokui invited fellow countryman "real person" Wang Renfu as his mentor. Under the influence and education of such a family, Ni Zan developed a lofty and aloof attitude, led an honest and clean life, did not ask about politics, and did not want to manage production. He called himself "lazy", also known as "Ni Yu", and was immersed in poetry and painting all the year round, which was quite different from the Confucian ideal of joining the WTO, so he became an official at the end of his life. The sexual intercourse is clean, the towels are washed several times a day, and the trees in front of and behind the house are often washed and wiped. There are thousands of books at home, all written by hand.
Ni Zan, a teenager, was well-off and well-off, but he didn't get into the habit of being a dude and clung to his study and cultivation. There is a three-story library "Qingyue Pavilion" at home, with a collection of more than a thousand volumes, including classics, books, books, Buddhist scriptures and Taoist books. Ni Zan reads and writes poems upstairs every day. In addition to studying classics carefully, he also dabbled in Buddhist and Taoist books. There are also famous calligraphy and paintings in the Qing Dynasty, such as the Recommended Seasons Table by Zhong You in the Three Kingdoms and the Haiyue Temple Map by Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty. Ni Zan plays with these masterpieces every morning and evening, especially Dong Yuan's Xiaoxiang map, Li Cheng's Maolin Yaoyuan map and Hao Jing's Qiushan map, and devotes himself to copying and imitating their verve temperament. At the same time, he often goes out for sightseeing and draws casually when he sees valuable scenery and things. He carefully observed various phenomena in nature, carefully sketched, and often came back with a full picture. On the one hand, Ni Zan paid attention to the inheritance of traditional techniques, learned from others' strengths and studied hard, which laid a solid foundation for his later painting innovation.
After five years in Thailand (1328), my eldest brother Ni Zhaokui died suddenly. Then, Shao's mother and teacher died one after another, and Ni Zan was very sad. He used to rely on the privileges enjoyed by his eldest brother, but later he lost everything. Ni Zan became an ordinary Confucian scholar, and his family economy became increasingly difficult. With a sad mood, he wrote his own poems and described in detail his painful environment at that time.
The twenty years from three years (1330) to eleven years (135 1) of the Yuan calendar are the maturity of Ni Zan's painting creation. During this period, Ni Zan made a wide range of friends, most of whom were monks, Taoists, poets and painters. Most of his poems are also sung with such people. Zhang Boyu, his best friend, was a famous Taoist priest, and Ni Zan drew a picture of bamboo and stone for him. Huang was another famous painter whom he admired, and also a famous figure of Quanzhen Taoism at that time. He is 32 years older than him, because his Taoism is deep. In 65,438+00, Huang Zenghua painted a long scroll of more than 20 feet for Ni Zan, which is one of the representative works of yellow, pale and crimson landscapes. The title of the scroll is Zheng Zhi Wuzi (65,438+0348); Ni Zan was 48 years old. At this time, he began to believe in Taoism (Quanzhen religion) and developed a withdrawn and reclusive character, which is also reflected in his paintings, which show a desolate, simple, quiet and generous intention.
During the 20 years from the 13th year of Yuan Dynasty (1353) to his death, Ni Zan roamed Taihu Lake. I traveled all over Jiangyin, Yixing, Changzhou, Wujiang, Huzhou, Jiaxing and Songjiang, entertaining myself with poems and paintings. This period is also the heyday of Ni Zan's painting. He carefully observed the beautiful scenery of Taihu Lake, understood its characteristics, concentrated, refined and summarized it, and created new composition forms and new pen and ink techniques, thus gradually forming a new artistic style. The work is characterized by distinctive personality, unique brushwork and simple painting. It features a vein of soil slope, with three or five trees planted next to it, one or two thatched cottages, with white space in the middle to show the beauty of the lake and clear sky, and mountains looming in the distance. The picture is quiet and serene, and the realm is far-reaching. This style is unprecedented. At this stage, Ni Zan created Pine Pavilion (1354), Qiu Ji Map of Fishing Village (1355), Luo Map of Strange Rocks (1360) and Shu Ting Yao Cen Map (65438+).
In the 23rd year of Yuan Dynasty (1363), on September 18th (125), his wife Jiang died of illness, which dealt a great blow to Ni Zan. The eldest son died young, and the second son was unfilial. The more lonely he feels in life, the more depressed he is and at a loss. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang once asked Ni Zan to go to Beijing for business, but he refused to go. In the fifth year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1372), on May 27th (June 28th), he wrote a poem, "Words are Brave", saying that he was unwilling to be an official. He only wrote Jiazi Year in poems and books on paintings, but did not write Hongwunian.
In the seventh year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1374), Ni Zan temporarily stayed at Zou's home in Changjing, Jiangyin. On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, he was infected with spleen disease, so he went to the famous doctor Xia ZZ's house of Qiyou for medical treatment and stayed halfway. Ni Zan was seriously ill and died in Xiafu on November 11th of the lunar calendar (65438+1February) at the age of 74. His body was buried in Xi and Jiangyin, and later in the ancestral grave at the foot of Furong Mountain in Wuxi. Nan Zhou wrote an epitaph.