Ni Zan’s was an inspirational water-ink landscape painter during the late Yuan Dynasty and is known as one of the ten most famous artist in ancient China.

Ni Zan’s (1301-1374) was born in Wuxi, southeastern region of China. Ni Zan’s came from a famous and wealthy family in southern China. He lost his father at a young age and was highly influenced by his brother. As a well educated young man, he studied diligently and was known for his exceptional memory. His life before the age of forty was lighthearted as he recited poems and leisurely painted; he enjoyed the company of other artist and traveled frequently with the group.

However in the last 20 years of his life, wars broke out and the social turmoil that followed deeply disturbed him. He ventured off with his family fortune and lived around the Tai Lake area living a comfortable carefree life developing many new artistic techniques. Ni Zan’s skillful water and mountain scenery, as well as bamboo and stone landscape paintings are the most recognized in the Ming and Qing Dynasty.

His teacher when he was young was Dong Yuan. Later he followed the Tang’s Five generations of renowned scenery painters such as Jing Hao and Guan Tung. His drawing technique of black ink was light using brushes with slanted sharp points, and light and heavy strokes for texture. Often he used the technique of a slightly dry brush known as the “thirsty pen" to draw mountains, stones and trees. Illustrations of leaves were done with long and pointed lines, round dots, upward strokes, and many other kinds of techniques.

His simple style is apparent in his forest scenery that often displayed remote shallow waters. The harsh brush strokes appear soft and tender on the paper. Ni’s unfolding brush pen technique are still used today

Many of his paintings were of “flatland” composition, with several tall trees in the foreground, a vast lake surface in the middle, and faraway mountains in the upper section of painting. This composition created far away spacious artistic effect. He was the first to put in the right section of the painting a caption that connected the scenery and unified the painting.

Ni Zan’s famous bamboo paintings expressed a tranquil mood. Ni once remarked that "my bamboo represents the leisurely tone of the heart and I don’t care if it resembles bamboo or not.” The number of leafs are numerous yet sparse, the technique is traditional yet avant-garde. His prolific piece of artwork used nature as the main source of inspiration. But he did not only pursue nature's physical feature, but the impressions he felt.

Ni Zan’s paintings that remain today include: "Looking at the Mountain from the Riverbank," "Bamboo and Rocks," "Six Gentlemen," and "Autumn Clouds over a Fishing Village."

Ni Zan died almost 700 years ago, yet his paintings still remain rare and precious with only a few dozen existing today. They are scattered throughout China, Taiwan, the United States, and Japan. The famous "Autumn Clouds over a Fishing Village" currently can be viewed at the Shanghai Museum.

(Adapted and translated from the Traditional Studies Net by the Epoch Times)