Zhu Da, a native of Badashan, whose name is Tong* (* stands for Shanglinxiajin), was the ninth grandson of Zhu Quan, king of Mingning Ningxian, and one of the "four monks" in the early Qing Dynasty. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, his country was destroyed and his family was destroyed. He felt sad and angry, and became a monk. His name was Chuanxi, and his name was Ren'an. He also used the names Xuege, Geshan, Geshanlu, Donkeywu, Renwu, Daolang, etc., and later entered Qingyun Pu as Dao. He is usually called Zhu Da, but this name was used for a short time. In his later years, he took the title Bada Shanren and used it until his death. When he signed his paintings, he often wrote "Bada" and "山人" vertically. The first two characters are similar to the character "cry" and the character "laugh", while the last two characters are similar to the character "zhi". The word "cry" means "laughing" or "laugh". He was loyal to the Ming Dynasty throughout his life. He regarded himself as a survivor of the Ming Dynasty and refused to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty. His works often use symbolic techniques to express his feelings, such as fish, ducks, birds, etc., all of which have their eyes turned to the sky, full of stubbornness. This image is a reflection of Zhu Da's own mentality. When painting landscapes, most of them take desolate, cold and desolate scenery, leaving mountains and rivers, and the feeling of admiration overflows on the paper. It can be said that "there are not many ink dots and many teardrops, the mountains and rivers are still the old mountains and rivers", "I want to see the people of the time interpret the pictures, and a peak "He also writes about the mountains and rivers of the Song Dynasty." It can be seen that Zhu Da attached great importance to painting and expressed his attachment to the old dynasty through calligraphy and painting. Zhu Da's calligraphy is characterized by his unbridled and unbridled style, which is vigorous, round, graceful and elegant. No matter whether he is a large painting or a small piece, he has a simple, smooth, clear and healthy style. The composition and structure are unconventional and seek to be complete despite incompleteness. Zhu Da's paintings had a great influence on later generations.
Zhu Da is good at flowers, birds and landscapes. His flowers and birds inherit the tradition of freehand flower and bird paintings by Chen Chun and Xu Wei. It developed into a broad-brush freehand painting method, which is characterized by using symbolic and allegorical techniques to exaggerate the painted flowers, birds, fish and insects. With its unique image and concise shape, the image in the painting is prominent, the theme is clear, and even He painted the eyes of birds and fish as "white eyes toward people" to express his aloof and cynical character, thereby creating an unprecedented flower-and-bird look.
The brushwork and ink used in his paintings are simple and bold, vigorous and forthright, dripping and smooth, the composition is sparse and dangerous, and the style is majestic and simple. He first learned landscape painting from Dong Qichang, and later from Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan. He mostly painted ink landscapes, with simple and vigorous brushwork and a desolate and lonely artistic conception. He is also good at calligraphy and is good at cursive and cursive calligraphy. Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi, Yan Zhenqing, Dong Qichang, etc. use bald pens to write in a smooth and elegant style.
Badashan people focus on painting, and also have high attainments in calligraphy, poetry, postscripts, and seal cutting. In painting, he is famous for his large-scale freehand ink paintings and is good at splashing ink. He is especially famous for his flower and bird paintings. In his creation, he adopts natural methods, concise pen and ink, majestic and unique, creating Gao Kuang's vertical and horizontal style. Over the past three hundred years, all major freehand painting schools have been more or less influenced by him. Zhang Geng in the Qing Dynasty commented that his paintings had reached the realm of "clumsiness in the rules of the square and circle, and despicable study in color painting". He advocates "sparing" in painting. Sometimes he only paints a bird or a stone on a large paper, with a few strokes and a unique expression. His calligraphy has a vigorous and graceful style. The seal carving has a simple shape and a unique pattern.
In the process of developing his own style, Zhu Da inherited the fine traditions of the previous generation and found his own path. His flower and bird paintings, the wild style of Xu Xi of the Five Dynasties of the distant dynasty, and the orchid, bamboo, ink and plum blossoms of the literati painters of the Song Dynasty were also influenced by the techniques of Linliang, Lu Ji and Lu Zhi of the Ming Dynasty, and he especially paid tribute to the extensive painting style of Qingteng Baiyang. His landscape paintings were as far back as Zong Bing of the Southern Dynasty, and he also learned from the Jiangnan landscapes of Dong, Ju, Mi Fu, Ni, Huang and even Dong Qichang. In terms of calligraphy, he studied stone drum inscriptions carefully and deliberately copied the dharma calligraphy of various schools since the Han, Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties, especially those of Wang Xizhi.
Roughly speaking, the characteristics of Zhu Da's painting art are that he uses form to express emotions and deform to capture the spirit; his ink is simple and light, his brushwork is unrestrained; his layout is sparse and his artistic conception is spacious; he is energetic and majestic. His form and technique are the best expression of his true feelings. The writing style is unrestrained and does not constitute a method. It is vigorous, round and elegant, and the composition is complete without seeking completeness. His flowers and birds are not based on the number or size, but on the status and momentum of the arrangement. And whether it is used at the right time, surprisingly and skillfully. This is his three-way method of winning. If he finds any shortcomings in the layout of the painting, he sometimes uses calligraphy to make up for it.
Bada Shanren is good at poetry and has exquisite calligraphy, so even if his paintings are not many, the artistic conception is sufficient with his poems. His paintings make people feel that they are small but not many. This is the ingenuity of art.
His landscape paintings are mostly ink, drawing on the patriarchal style of Dong Qichang and Huang Gongwang. Ni Zan and others used Dong Qichang's brushwork to paint landscapes, but they did not have a graceful, peaceful, clear and elegant style, but a dry style. It is cold and lonely, full of desolation, and reveals a strong and simple atmosphere in the desolate state, reflecting his lonely and angry mood and perseverance personality. His use of ink is different from Dong Qichang's. Dong Qichang's ink can be moisturized and clear with a light brush, while Bada Shanren's dry ink can be moisturized and clear. Therefore, the paintings are both "unrestrained", but Bada Shanren and others are different from others. They are both "moisturized", but Bada Shanren and others are moisturized differently. A painter's artistic expression can be different from his predecessors and unmatched by others at the time. His flower-and-bird paintings are particularly outstanding and unique. Most of his paintings are lyrical based on objects, using symbolic techniques to express meanings, personifying objects and expressing his own feelings. In the confrontation between innovation and conservatism in the painting world of the early Qing Dynasty, Bada Shanren played a prominent role among the "Four Great Painting Monks" of the reformist group.