Ni Kuangwen's Aesthetics And Schema Expression Research

The Yuan Dynasty is a very important period of time in the history of ancient Chinese painting.During this period,groups of artists who were composed of the literati and the hermit stood out from the art of painting in the Song Dynasty,which promotes the transformation from the shape-oriented painting to freehand brushwork painting and creates a unique art system with beauty,charm and elegance of literati painting.Nizan,one of the famous painters in the Yuan Dynasty with the typical elegant painting style,pushes the unique artistic quality of literati painting to its peak,his works hailed as the classical literati painting creation.As an outstanding representative of literati painting in the Yuan Dynasty,Nizan' s painting is based on his individual aesthetic ideas.Deeply rooted in cultural philosophy of Confucianism and Taoism(especially the Quanzhen Taoism),theoretically combined with the aesthetic conception of emotion,behavior and layout in the painting of the Yuan Dynasty,the aesthetics of Ni Zan' s painting,by the unremitting practice and theoretical exploration,sets a high standard of unique aesthetic ideal,creates a new and ancient literati painting model and forms a series of important categories and propositions of his elegance—centered aesthetics.By appreciating the perfect combination of artistic practice and aesthetic theory as well as the superb aesthetic creation,people can deeply feel his profound artistic attainments,theoretical meditation and realm of life.Nizan's aesthetics is from his artistic practice,and,in turn,is also reflected in his art creation.This dissertation,titled as "The Study on Aesthetic Thought and Schematic Representotion of Nizan' s Literati Painting",systematically discusses his painting aesthetics and art creation.Furthermore,it also explores the theoretical elements in the aesthetics scattered in Nizan,s art works and relevant literature.In the course of the specific discussion,his paintings and works are the most convincing practical examples and image basis.The main body of this dissertation includes five chapters.The first chapter introduces Nizan,s life background and artistic career and states the influence of the special historical conditions in the Yuan Dynasty on Nizan' s painting.Nizan's painting style is based on the special social atmosphere and culture of his times,which profoundly influences the formation of his aesthetics.The special age and social background,together with Ni Zan's personal experiences as well as his subjective consciousness all help to form a unique style of Nizan's painting and its connotation,which is mainly reflected in image,composition,ink and artistic features of his works.The second chapter further develops the basic ideological foundation and constitution of Nizan's aesthetics.With different ideological tendencies at different life stages,Nizan gradually formed its own life philosophy,which affects the aesthetics and creation in his later life.His aesthetics is the integration of the three religions of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism,and his belief in art philosophy,which is an important part of his outlook in life and value orientation.His aesthetics of advocating elegance and abandoning vulgarness is also the systematical construction of his personality,style and aesthetic relation.The third chapter discusses the important category and theoretical proposition of Nizan' s aesthetics.By studying "A Reply to Zhang Zaozhong",a programmatic document of Nizany s aesthetics,his variety of artistic creation,works and remarks,and the relevant research achievements in history,three theoretical propositions of Nizan's elegance-centered aesthetics can be discovered,which are the artistic trait theory of elegance and self-enjoyment,painting creation theory of simplicity and dissimilarity and aesthetic style theory of broadness and peace.The fourth chapter studies the interactive relationship between Nizan's art creation and his aesthetics,which originates from his artistic creation and is also reflected in the aesthetic creation of his painting.His broad aesthetic style,his combination of poem,calligraphy,painting and other art forms,his typical art composition,and his elegance-centered aesthetic characters and values are all revealed in his painting style,artistic creation and cultural significance.It is also an important part of his aesthetic thought.The fifth chapter elaborates and summarizes the value and significance of Nizan' s aesthetics as well as his art practice from the perspective of his historical position in the whole literati painting system of China.Many of his insights into the painting aesthetics are not only an important ideological source for the artists and theorists of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and Chinese modern times to study the literati painting,but also a significant cultural resource for the innovation and development of contemporary painting in China together with his unique personality and remarkable creation.Nizan' s aesthetic thought has profound and lasting influence on the history of Chinese literati painting.Over hundreds of years,many great pianists and art schools imitated his works with great interest in his aesthetics and achieved fruitful results.As to the contemporary art,the new development of literati painting cannot do without learning the traditional literati painting.As the subject of painting learning and theme of academic research,Nizan,s art spirit and temperament will be an inexhaustible and everlasting treasure of Chinese culture resource.