Ni Zan is good at landscapes, bamboo stones, dead wood, etc. Among them, he used a typical technique-folding the ribbon, which is the representative painter of Nanzong landscape painting in Yuan Dynasty, and his works are mainly paper-based ink and wash. His landscape teachers, Dong Yuan, Jing Hao, Guan Tong and Li Cheng, developed them, and their paintings were simple and simple, and their styles were naive and quiet. Most of the works draw mountains and rivers around Taihu Lake, with flat composition and simple scenery, mostly for sparse forest slopes and shallow water. With the pen, the center is turned into a flank, and the mountains and rocks are folded and painted. The pen is dry and ink is elegant and loose, and the artistic conception is desolate and empty. The style is simple and elegant, simple and complicated, small and big, lonely outside and full of passion. He is also good at painting ink bamboo, and his style is "elegant" and he is thin and open. There are many poems in the painting. Because of his conciseness, his paintings have been faked for many years, but it is not easy to imitate their depressed and indifferent temperament. In Ni Zan's painting theory, he advocates expressing subjective feelings, and thinks that painting should show the author's "escape from the chest" and not seek the shape ("the so-called painter of a servant is just careless, not seeking the shape, but chatting to entertain himself"). History of painting called him Yuan Sijia with Huang Gongwang, Zhen Wu and Wang Meng. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Dong Qichang and others admired him and often put him above the other three. Ming He Liangjun said, "Yunlin Shuda ordered that there was no dust." Wang Mian's "Send Yang Yifu to Visit Yunlin" said that Ni Zan "filled the house with toothpicks and Japanese books, and colored pens filled the floor with Cigarette Cards".
Ni Zan was the most influential painter in the Yuan Dynasty. His simple and simple landscape painting style was sought after by masters in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as Dong Qichang and Shi Tao, who cited him as the originator. Shi Tao's calligraphy paintings were based on Ni Zan in spirit and style. Ni Zan is also a calligrapher who takes retro as the banner and pursues artistic individualization. Like Zhang Yu and Yang Weizhen, he belongs to this era and does not belong to this era. This is the transcendental value of art to the era.
Jiangnan people in the Ming Dynasty distinguished elegance and vulgarity according to whether they collected his paintings or not. His painting practice and theoretical viewpoints had a great influence on the painting circles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and he was still rated as "one of the top ten painters in ancient China" and listed as a world cultural celebrity by the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The paintings include: Mountain View on the Riverbank, Bamboo Trees and Wild Stones, Xishan Mountain, Six Scholars, Water Bamboo Residence, Pine Pavilion, Lion Forest, Xilin Zen Room, Cold Pine in a secluded stream, Lin Qiu Mountain Color, Spring Rain and New Moon, and Small Mangosteen Tree. There are Water Bamboo Residence Map, Knee-tolerant Zhai Map, Fish Village Autumn Ji Map, Yushan Forest Valley Map, You Jian Han Song Map, Qiu Ting Jia Shu Map, Strange Stone Cluster Map, Bamboo Branch Map, Xishan Fairy Hall, Frost Forest Turbulent Stone and so on. Ni Zan works in calligraphy, and is good at regular script. His calligraphy, as a master rhymer in the wild, participates in Zen and learns Taoism, and wanders all over the world. With a note of the charm of ice and snow, he writes his unique style of simplicity, simplicity and lightness. Xu Weiyun: "Jun Shu entered from Li, and he was reborn in Zhong You's" Recommended Season Straight Table ",which is ancient and charming, dense and sparse." Ni Zan really achieved both "seclusion" and "escape", and his books are vigorous and exquisite, but also straightforward and simple. No wonder later generations call him "Ni Gaoshi". Wen Zhiming and Dong Qichang both highly praised his calligraphy. Wen Zhiming commented: "Mr. Ni has a high personality, and his enthusiasm has the ethos of Jin and Song Dynasties." Dong Qichang commented: "Old and naive, Mi Chi (that is, Mi Fei) is only one person behind." Compared with Geshou Tiexue, Ni Zan's calligraphy is totally different in style, which inevitably attracts criticism. Such as Xiang Mu accused Ni Zan of being bitter and shabby when he wrote. Even in the year of Lao Peng, there will be no good in the end. "
Li Ruiqing, a modern calligrapher, thinks: "Ni Yu's book is cold and barren, which does not lose the momentum of Jin people, and has a disadvantage in the forest, such as Tao Yuanming in the poem, but it is not explained by meat eaters." Ni Zan's works handed down from generation to generation include Three Stamps, Boat Posting at the Beginning of the Month, Poem Posting in a Guest House, Poem Volume to Chen Weiyin, Poem Writing with the Rate, Poem Writing with Liang Chang, Two Simple Notes with Caution, Miscellaneous Poem Posting, etc. Ni Zan lived in a war-torn environment, and wanted to escape from reality, give up pastoral industry and lead a roaming life. "According to the night wind, people stay alone, and the window is close to each other", which is a portrayal of his life. However, he can't be completely divorced from reality. He said in the poem "To Gu Zhongying": "People's livelihood is very devastated, and the road to travel is long." Especially in the fifteenth year of Zhengzheng (1355), he was imprisoned for not paying the official rent. In plain clothes's Poems, he said: "He who is harsh is a tiger, and he cares for others." Shows his critical attitude. However, Ni Zan often takes a negative attitude towards reality. He has a Sanqu [Gui Gui Ling] that says, "There is no hero between heaven and earth, no hero." He is neither a hermit nor an official, wandering in the Jianghu, and others don't know him, and he doesn't want to be known. Ni Zan's poems are natural, elegant and elegant, and his prose is the same. He is the author of 15 volumes of Qing Dynasty Pavilion Collection.