Zheng Banqiao's Poems and Paintings

Zheng Xie (1693— 1766) was born in Xinghua. Kangxi scholar, Yongzheng juren, Qianlong Jinshi, served as seven county officials. He is also good at poetry, poetry, music, writing, couplets, printing, calligraphy and painting. He is an important representative of the "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou" and is famous for his "three unique poems, paintings and calligraphy".

Childhood, adolescence, youth

Zheng Xie lived in Suzhou and moved to Xinghua in the early Ming Dynasty. Great-grandfather Wan Xin, evergreen, was born in. Zuzhuo, with a clear word, was a Confucian scholar. Father's inheritance, word Li 'an,No. Mengyang, Yu Sheng. Mother Wang, stepmother Hao.

Zheng Xie was born in October of the thirty-second year of Kangxi (1693), and the season was "light snow". According to Xinghua folk custom, "Xiaoxue" is "Grandma Xue's birthday". Xie and Grandma Xue came to the world at the same time, and the whole family was very happy. Therefore, according to the words "Xie has guest meat" in Shang Shu Hong Fan, his grandfather and father named him Xie and brought guest meat. Because there was a wooden bridge near where he lived, Zheng Xie later named himself Banqiao.

Former Residence of Zheng Banqiao

The Zheng family is not rich. Xie is the eldest son. After he was born, his family was happy and worried. For fear of death, he took a nickname "Shantou". Because there are a few faint pockmarked faces, it is also commonly known as "pockmarked girl".

When Zheng Xie was born, his family was already in poverty, relying only on ancestral fields and a small amount of land rent to support his family. Later, my father got a student qualification at the age of two, and received a meal from the government every month, and his life improved. But it didn't last long. Xie's three-year-old biological mother, Wang, died, and she was raised by her wet nurse. Fei is a grandmother's maid-in-waiting, hardworking, kind, loving and kind. Xinghua flood, hunger and cold, Zheng Jiayang couldn't afford to keep a maid-in-waiting, and he couldn't bear to part with Zheng Xie. After three meals, he went home for dinner and still went to Zhengjiacao to do housework.

After Wang died, his father married his stepson Hao and took care of him as his biological mother. Therefore, Zheng Xie later recalled: "I cried my eyes out for no reason, and I was sad to think of my stepmother." . Ten years' hard work at home makes me worry about hunger and cold. "("Seven Songs ")

His father opened a buddhist nun, and his academic performance was excellent. After he was admitted to Mansheng, he opened a private school at home, and Zheng Xie studied with his father. Grandfather Wang Xuwen is also well-read, lives in seclusion and is very concerned about his grandchildren. He often guides reading and composition, so Zheng Xie claims that "literariness is mostly foreign."

Zheng Xie seemed to have no sense of superiority when he was a child, and all his classmates looked down on him because he was not good-looking. But he has strong self-esteem, studies hard and gets excellent grades. At the same time, I dare to speak out and even denounce things I don't like, so my classmates' parents warned their children not to associate with him. He studied the combination of "essence" and "knowledge", especially "essence". Classics, history, philosophers and books are all involved, and time is precious when key chapters are read repeatedly. Among the Twenty-first History, he admired the Historical Records most, and thought that the description of the Battle of the Giant Deer, the banquet at the Hongmen Gate and the Gaixia in the Biography of Xiang Yu was the most wonderful paragraph. He admired Confucius and Mencius, but he didn't like Zhu's empty talk about sex. He pays attention to "daily use" in his study, so as to achieve in-depth understanding and mastery, especially reading the poems of poets such as Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Lu You.

There are many kinds of bamboos around Zheng Xie's former residence. When Xia Rixin first released them, Zheng Xie enjoyed the cool in the shade of bamboo. In autumn and winter, he often meditates on the bamboo shadow hidden on enough paper, and even copies it.

In addition to learning from nature, Zheng Xie also attached importance to inheriting tradition. He studied under Xiao Rui, the pioneer of Mohist bamboo painting in Tang Dynasty, and Shi Tao in early Qing Dynasty. Su Shi, Wen Tong and Xu Wei are all masters he worships. Later, he went to Maojiaqiao in Yizheng to study, where there were many bamboos, which provided conditions for him to draw bamboos and formed an indissoluble bond with them. From then on, he lived without bamboo, and bamboo became the most important theme in his paintings. He loves painting bamboo, and he loves bamboo's character even more. The arrogance and unyielding strength and modesty of bamboo have become a portrayal of Zheng Xie's personality.

In the spring of the fifty-first year of Kangxi, Zheng Xie returned to Xinghua and wrote "Lu". Lu taught him to learn from graceful Liu Yong and Qin Guan, and from wild Su Shi and Xin Qiji. Lu believes that poetry is different from ci, graceful is a positive example, bold is a different example, and we should try our best to be one in practice. Judging from Zheng Xie's later ci works, there are both.

In the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi, Zheng Xie married Xu's daughter. Gave birth to a male name, died young, and gave birth to two women. In order to support his family, he was forced to set up a school in Yizheng Jiangcun. But without fame and attention, people can't make ends meet, so they paint and sell paintings because of their thoughts. At that time, Yangzhou was connected with water from north to south, and salt merchants gathered, which provided conditions for its prosperity and literati to display their talents. So Zheng Xie went to Yangzhou again, studying, painting and selling paintings, waiting for the opportunity to enter the body.

Kangxi scholar, Yongzheng juren, Qianlong Jinshi

The exact date of Zheng Xie's scholar is unknown, but judging from the seven seals, it is about 61 years of Kangxi (when Zheng Xie was thirty years old) or earlier. But at this moment, Jia Zheng suffered another great misfortune. When my father died, there was no rice to cook, and people kept collecting debts. Forced to make a living, Zheng Xie had to follow in his father's footsteps and stay at home. In order to avoid debt, he once fled to Jiao Shan, Zhenjiang, and stayed with a Xinghua monk in Biefeng Temple. There, I was fortunate to meet Ma Yueyan, an elegant and hospitable man. Ma appreciated Zheng Xie's talent and sympathized with his experience, so he gave him 220 taels of silver to help him out. Yan was in close contact with Jin Nong, Gao Ren and others who gathered in Yangzhou to paint and sell paintings at that time. Ma's family became their frequent meeting place, and Zheng Xie was also involved. * * * studied poetry and calligraphy, because the interests and hobbies were basically the same, which laid a solid foundation for the formation of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" which later became famous in China painting circles.

Soon, Zheng Xie was lucky enough to meet the painter Cheng's generosity and gave him 1200 silver, which not only washed away his poverty, but also provided temporary support for him to realize his long-cherished wish to visit. From the second year to the third year of Yongzheng (1724-1725), Zheng Xie traveled in Jiangxi and Beijing. When he had no money to worry about his livelihood, in the sixth year of Yongzheng, he had to go back to his hometown to study psychology and the history of Confucian classics, thinking that he would seek a ladder and learn painting at the same time.

Yongzheng nine years, Zheng Xie thirty-nine years, his wife Xu died, he at the end of last year. After the exam in the second year, life is very difficult, not to mention the test fee! I heard that the newly appointed Wang Zhi Xian is a good official. Zheng Xie wrote a poem to him, asking for funding. Wang did encourage him to take the exam, and Zheng Xie finally got his wish, and he was promoted for ten years in Yongzheng. But because there is no money to give gifts, I still can't find a part-time job, so I have to continue painting and selling paintings to help the poor. Besides painting bamboo, he also painted orchids and stones to express his sorrow of "not asking Wen Da for a hazy sky". .

In the 13th year of Yongzheng, I came to Shuangfeng Pavilion in Jiao Shan to study for the big exam next year. After the Spring Festival in the first year of Qianlong (1736), 44-year-old Zheng Xie went to Beijing to take the exam and won the scholar. But people still don't have a door, so they have to take the empty title of Jinshi and go home to repair it. Who knows this is six years. Helpless, Zheng Xie had to go to Yangzhou again to sell paintings, so that he could have closer contacts with the Eight Eccentrics and the scribes from all directions, and even became the guest of Lu Jianzeng, the salt transport envoy of Huaibei.

After six years, Zheng Xie finally got lucky when he went to Beijing to make up lessons. Ganlong's uncle Wang Yunxi took a fancy to him and thought he was the contemporary Li Bai. Yunxi asked Zheng Xie to write and preface Poems for Grass and Poems on Grass in Huajiantang, and Xie Xinran agreed. At that time, factional struggles within the Qing royal family were fierce. Although the king is not in power, it is also very smooth. After Yongzheng acceded to the throne, he was named Beizi and Baylor, and Qianlong acceded to the throne and was also named the county king. Zheng Xie was regarded as an adventure by him. Thus, in the spring of the seventh year of Qianlong, Zheng Xie was appointed as the magistrate of Fanxian County, Shandong Province, and began his official career.

Fan Zhi county and Wei county.

Zheng Xie became a county magistrate at the age of fifty. He was both excited and unconvinced. His complicated mood can be imagined, because he "wanted to be an official in Wangjing at the beginning and talked about his grandfather's success, only to get another job." Guo Linxing, the successor, sewed a quilt with yellow silk and gave it to him. He said: "One generation is an official, and seven generations are poor. Fortunately, you shouldn't kill people in violation of the law. If you are good at the public gate, you will get a heavenly heart and a good omen. " Zheng Xie knows it by heart and is determined to be a good county magistrate.

Fan County is located on the north bank of the Yellow River in the west of Shandong Province. Although it is poor, its people are simple. When Zheng Xie arrived, he did a good thing: he made many holes in the wall of the county government and looked straight at the street. Someone asked him why, and he said, "It's tacky to leave the front palace." He also wrote to his cousin, saying that "the only person in the world is the farmer" and that "it is convenient for Jia people to carry utensils for work." Go out for inspection, don't ring gongs or drink, and don't need signs of "avoidance" and "silence". When you go out at night, you only take two courtiers to guide you, and only the word "Banqiao" is written on the lantern. His years in Fan County were also smooth sailing. He loves different people's resources and does nothing. He once painted a picture of "lying stone" on the wall of the official residence to show that "the lawsuit is simple, the punishment is light, and it is wonderful to lie down and reason." There was a rich man in Fanxian who disliked the poor scholar who was about to become a husband and wanted to break off his marriage. He gave Zheng Xie 1200 silver as a birthday present, and Xie accepted it, and made the rich man's daughter an adopted daughter. The rich man readily agreed. When Zheng Xie hid the poor scholar in the official residence and the rich man introduced his daughter to his adoptive father, Banqiao said, "I'll find a husband for my daughter! This 1,200 silver will be used as a dowry. " Of course, the rich are happy. Banqiao called out a scholar, married his "adopted daughter" and went home by car together.

Zheng Xie was also in trouble in Fan County. Once, a Sichuan examinee won the first place in the county exam. According to the regulations, the student had to go back to his hometown to take the exam. Zheng Xie, on the other hand, thinks there is no need to set up barriers and make an exception. This incident caused the county's examinee's criticism, wrote to the superior for approval, but the result was reprimanded by the Cao Zhou county magistrate.

In the 11th year of Qianlong (1746), Zheng Xie was transferred to wei county. Weixian county is located in the east of Shandong province. Although the area is rich in specialties and developed in commerce, the arrival of Zheng Xie coincides with the continuous drought and epidemic, and the former county official slipped away less than a year after taking office. Zheng Xie takes sympathy for the victims as practical action. He opened the warehouse, asked the hungry people to write IOUs to collect rice, and registered the large households in the county one by one, ordering them to take turns to open factories to put porridge, and even caught the grain hoarders and ordered them to sell at a low price. In the long run, it is necessary to use the stored grain by legal means and lay the foundation for next year's bumper harvest. At the same time, he also took the lead in giving his own "yanglianyin" to share the hardships with the people. However, in the second year, there was still a serious drought in wei county, and Emperor Qianlong had to send Gao Bin, a college student from Wenyuange who had just visited, to Shandong for disaster relief. Gao and Zheng knew each other as early as Yangzhou, and now when they meet in Shandong, they can't help reciting a poem.

In the spring of the 13th year of Qianlong, Emperor Qianlong visited Shandong, which was probably related to the recommendation of Shen Jun and Gao Bin. Zheng Xie was named History of Calligraphy and Painting.

In order to save the social crisis caused by successive years of drought in Wei County, Zheng Xie raised funds through rich households and took the lead in donating 360,000 yuan to build a new wall in Wei County, which was completed in March of the 14th year of Qianlong. This autumn, wei county finally had a good harvest, and hungry people returned to their hometowns to settle down.

However, the good times did not last long, because Zheng Xie was always dissatisfied with the reality, and his "crazy" and "weird" behavior naturally made the reality unacceptable. I went to the province on business, ate with bureaucrats and wrote poems, and finally made a mistake. Because there is a sentence in Zheng's poem, "If you flow to the seaside, it is bittern, and no one knows the clear spring", and people think it is a mockery of your boss. In the winter of the seventeenth year of Qianlong, Zheng Xie was dismissed from office, thus ending his official career.

Selling paintings and dying in Yangzhou

Zheng Xie returned to Yangzhou after being dismissed from office and sold paintings here in his early years. Although he was a commoner at this time, his poems, books and paintings were very famous in Yangzhou, and he was honest and clean, so he was very popular with Yangzhou literati and people. He stayed in Yangzhou for a few days, and then went back to his hometown in Xinghua for the New Year. Many years later, Zheng Xie, who was over 60 years old, traveled to Hangzhou to relax and sell paintings to support his family. Wu Zuozhe, the magistrate of Hangzhou, had long wanted Zheng Xie's calligraphy and painting. When he heard that Zheng Xie was coming to visit, he immediately greeted him with wine and gave him money and silks and satins. Zheng Xie wrote and drew a picture for him. Other bureaucrats and celebrities also gave gold banquets and demanded Zheng Xie's calligraphy and painting. Zheng Xie immediately took the money back to Xinghua to help his family. Soon he returned to the north, and often traveled between Yangzhou, Xinghua, Taizhou and other prosperous cities in northern Jiangsu, making a living by painting and selling paintings.

While in Yangzhou, Zheng Xie lived in Qilin Temple in the north of the city. Many young people in the city often go to Chikulin Temple to worship Zheng Xie to learn calligraphy and painting. On one occasion, in Zhuxi Pavilion, Zheng Xie, Huang Shen, Shen and other painters each took 100 yuan to celebrate the day of eternity, and Zheng Xie made a "Nine Flowers Orchid Map" to celebrate its prosperity. Zheng Xie has a high reputation, but life is hard. Some people asked him to paint just to say some compliments, or just to send some gifts and food, but Zheng Xie was embarrassed to take bacon home. Later, Zheng Xie took the advice of monk Zhuo Gong and put out a "Runge" advertisement: six taels for large size, four taels for medium size, two taels for small size, one tael for banners and five yuan for fans. There is also a poem: draw more bamboo, buy more bamboo, the paper is six feet high and costs three thousand. Let's talk about the handover of old words, only when the autumn wind passes by. Since then, Zheng Xie's income from selling paintings has not been fully used to support his family. He specially made a bag for a person, which contained some silver fruits and food, and took it out at any time to prevent the poor or old acquaintances.

In Xinghua, in addition to the floating pavilion and green garden, Zheng Xie often meets with local literati in the private gardens of famous Ming officials such as Liuyuan and Zaoyuan in Tainan, and sings poems and paintings, leaving many excellent works.

In the 30th year of Qianlong (1766), in December, his parents, who should have made great achievements, finally finished his tortuous life, and died at the age of 73 in Qingyuan, a lake near Shengxiandang, xinghua city. Although he failed to make great achievements in politics, a large number of reincarnated poems, paintings and calligraphy works, as well as his thoughts and personality, added a lot of dazzling brilliance to him.

Casting eight arts, outstanding everyone.

Jiang Shufeng, a professor at Yangzhou University, once commented that Zheng Banqiao was a "poet and painter". In fact, his achievements run through two categories: literature and art. He is good at poetry, ci, qu, Wen, calligraphy, painting, couplets and seal cutting, and is known as the literary and artistic garden of the Qing Dynasty. He is the most influential of the Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou. He is listed as one of the "Three Highs in Chuyang", "Seven Children in Yongjia" and "Three Sages in Weixian" respectively, and is known as the master of Banqiao School.

There are more than 100 poems 1000, more than 100 songs 10, more than 0 couplets 100, more than 0 letters 100, and hundreds of prefaces, postscripts, inscriptions and banners in Zheng Xie. It can be said that he is a versatile writer. His poems are fresh and fluent, straightforward and free-spirited, and rarely use allusions, describing the sufferings of ordinary people's lives and the ugliness of corrupt officials, with the styles of Shaoling and Weng Fang. For example, the trip to escape, the trip home and the trip home are the true portrayal of the post-disaster situation in Wei County. Fierce officials and vicious lynchings exposed the cruelty and tyranny of cruel officials; The famous "Ya Zhai Lie Listening to Xiao" is suspected to be the voice of the people's sufferings. Some small officials in Caozhou County always care about their feelings. "("Painting Bamboo in Weixian County ") expresses Zheng Banqiao's thoughts and feelings closely related to the people. His words are graceful and unconstrained, which is quite "close to Pai Cheng". Graceful words, such as He Xinlang Xu Qingteng cursive scroll, etc. Generous and desolate, boastful, "singing after drinking, crying wildly." "Sanqu is mainly composed of 10 Taoist songs. It is written in Huangguan style, revealing the sinister world through the coat of birth, spreading widely and being regarded as the highest achievement of Taoist style. The couplets are simple and natural, with lofty artistic conception, rich philosophy and life interest, and become the big couplets of the Qing Dynasty. " Letters from Home also narrates family affairs, probes into the way of governing the country, comments on literary creation schools, exchanges ideas on poetry and calligraphy, and expresses one's feelings directly, each of which has a certain position in the history of prose in the Qing Dynasty.

Zheng Xie has more than 65,438+0,000 paintings, which is one of the most ancient painters in China.

Zheng Xie generally does not paint figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, but mainly orchids, bamboos and stones, as well as pines, chrysanthemums and plums. The bamboo he painted was thin and straight, dripping with ink, wet and dry; Lan Xiujin is solid and interesting. Stone is gorgeous, elegant, ugly, wet and changeable. All these constitute Zheng Xie's overall painting style, which is vigorous and lively.

Zheng Xie painted bamboos in middle schools since childhood, with shadows of the sun and the moon, paper windows and whitewashed walls, claiming to be "self-taught". When I first came to Yangzhou to sell paintings, my eyes were wide open, and I realized that it was only similar in shape before, far less than Shi Tao's spirit likeness. After visiting Lushan Mountain during Yongzheng period, I realized the mystery of Badashan people's freehand brushwork. Starting from learning from nature, Zheng Xie inherited and carried forward the fine traditions of Shi Tao and Badashan who dared to innovate and didn't stick to the rules, formed his own unique style and expanded the expressive techniques of literati painting.

Zheng Xie put forward many brilliant painting theories based on his own painting practice. For example, he put forward the theories of "no ambition", "learning three and throwing seven", "not setting an example" and "being big before being small" and so on. These are the important development of painting theory from Gu Kaizhi to Shi Tao, and still have guiding significance for painting creators.

Zheng Xie's calligraphy is unique. He divided his calligraphy into six and a half books, which people called "Banqiao style". This calligraphy style is dominated by eight points, which combines the methods of opening, writing, cursive, seal cutting and drawing Zhu Lan. Fang Bi, round pen, thirsty pen and squatting pen can change freely, and the center, flank and edge are just right. In the structure of characters, it focuses on the horizontal direction, mostly flat, radiating from the center of gravity to four directions, unique and novel, endless. In terms of layout, there is a seamless and natural sense of integrity. In a picture, although the large, small, square, round and irregular shapes are ever-changing, they are arranged in an orderly way, and the air cushion is coherent from beginning to end.

Over the years, people have spoken highly of Banqiao calligraphy. Jin Nong, a contemporary, said: "The Banqiao of Zheng Jinshi in Xinghua is romantic and elegant, and the theme is crazy grass and ancient brush, and each word is also wonderful." Deng Tuo, a close friend, said, "It was not only popular at that time, but has been popular for 200 years. I have been studying the old school for a long time, and Dong Xin and Banqiao used official pens. However, it is strange to lose it. " Yang Shoujing said: "Banqiao began to write models, and the winter heart was divided into two parts. They were not bound by their predecessors and found their own way. However, after school, I am a teacher or a demon. " Kang, although he didn't like Banqiao's "strangeness", saw his innovation in traditional calligraphy after all, as Zheng Xie himself said: "A brand-new way, an outstanding master."

Like painting theory, Zheng Xie's book theory is full of insights. From Cai Yong, Zhong You and Wang Xizhi to Zhao Mengfu and Dong Qichang's calligraphy, Zheng Xie has made comments. In the early Qing Dynasty, calligraphers paid more attention to books than monuments, and the rulers advocated the style of Wu, Ming and Fang Ting, which bound the calligraphers' artistic personality. Zheng Xie traced back to the source, learned from others' strengths, attached importance to Han steles, and made bold innovations, which brought new vitality to the book world.

Zheng Xie's achievements in the field of literature and art are not only reflected in the creation and theory of poetry, calligraphy and painting, but also in his combination of the three. This combination is manifested in both micro and macro aspects.

Microscopically, Zheng Xie painted with books, with books, with poems and with poems. He put the "close button of the book" into the painting, and with a wave of his pen, he made the orchid branches and bamboo leaves resemble the vertical skimming method in cursive script, and the exquisite calligraphy pen was integrated with the skill of drawing orchid bamboo. In addition, the calligraphy image is realized from various images of nature, and the vertical and horizontal points are often like bamboo branches and orchids, which makes calligraphy works have the aesthetic feeling of painting. As Jiang Shiquan, a poet in the Qing Dynasty, said, "Banqiao writes words like orchids, and the waves are simple and graceful. Banqiao wrote the character Lanru. Show your leaves and flowers. Don't write in a unique way, and don't praise calligraphy and painting. Tang Tang has different attitudes, and ordinary people laugh at Banqiao. " Zheng Xie's poems are full of pictures, such as one of the seven sentences in Xinghua to Gaoyou: "A hundred and sixty miles of lotus fields, thousands of fish and ducks. The boat can't hold on, and the red powder is pitiful. " A few strokes paint a beautiful, dynamic and vibrant water town landscape. Green lotus leaves, red lotus flowers, white fish scales and brown ducks are so cleverly matched that they can't be amazing! There are also poems in his paintings. We looked at Zheng Xie's indomitable pillars and orchids fluttering in the wind, as if we heard a song "Song Zhengqi".

Macroscopically, Zheng Xie often unified poems, books and paintings with seals on a piece of paper. For example, when he was 70 years old, he painted a picture of bamboo and stone. A huge stone stands tall, and several thin bamboos almost burst the picture. A poem was inscribed in the blank in the upper right corner: "Seventy old people draw bamboo stones, and the stones are straighter and the bamboo is straighter. But I know that this old pen is extraordinary. It stands on a wall thousands of miles away. Guiwei, thank you. " Press the names of both parties. In the lower right margin of the picture frame, the side of "singing and blowing ancient Yangzhou" was put. The old man has been wandering all his life, not bowing to all kinds of evil forces, still as firm as a rock, as strong as bamboo, and as noble as an orchid. Poetry is inclined, big or small, or above the peaks, replaced by law; Or bamboo poles, so that the painting is connected into a whole; Or in orchids, flowers are more numerous and leaves are more lush. Although Zheng Xie didn't create the first poem of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it is rare as the beauty of Zheng Xie, and the beauty lies in the high unity of various arts. If this poem is not engraved on the stone map of Zhu Lan, but on the map of scenery and beautiful women, it must be out of proportion. If you use Yan, Liu's body or Jin Nong's "lacquer book" instead of "six-and-a-half-minute brush strokes", no matter how good the painting or the words are, it will be very uncoordinated. In Zheng Xie's works, poetry, painting, book and seal have reached a perfect unity.

The core of Zheng Xie's artistic achievements is the word "strange". The so-called strangeness means being different, that is, rebelling against tradition. To express it with a pair of couplets written by Zheng Banqiao to Gao Han, it means "bring forth the new and be different" ("simplify by deleting the complex, bring forth the new and be different"). Strange in literature and art, and strange in political thought; The strangeness in political thought is manifested in resistance to feudal orthodoxy, sympathy for working people and strong demand for personality liberation.

When Zheng Xie visited Beijing in his early years, he liked to speak loudly and make comments, and was called a "madman". He believes that people at the bottom, such as Zanghuo, maids, Yutai and jujube pears, are also descendants of the Yellow Emperor Yao Shun and should be equated with wealthy families. He shouted, "Does the maharaja have a ball?" Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism is regarded as authentic political thought by the rulers, and Zheng Xie thinks that "it is only used in leisure time, so there is no need to be busy". When he was an official in Shandong, he publicly exposed the darkness of the officialdom and opened a warehouse for relief in the year of famine. In the end, he was dismissed on trumped-up charges because he did not conform to the current situation. In his later years, he painted a picture of Cang Shi and wrote a poem: "Old bones are cold and thick, and tall and straight as Mount Tai. Even if there is a Qin emperor in the future, I dare not whip him to Haimen. " It fully shows his unswerving spirit of fighting feudal orthodoxy to the end.

Compared with predecessors, Zheng Xie's people-oriented thought has gone further. He said: "the weaver girl is the source of clothes; Petunia is the foundation of food. " He added: "It is convenient for Jia people to move utensils without luck, but it is inconvenient for scholars to be alone among the people. No wonder they came last among the four. "This theory belittles intellectuals too much, but it is commendable to attach so much importance to the social role of farmers, workers and businessmen. So he said, "whenever I paint blue, bamboo and stone, it is to comfort the working people all over the world, not to enjoy them." "

Zheng Xie rebelled against tradition and strongly advocated free development according to his own nature. He once talked about keeping birds in cages, tying dragonflies and tying crabs with strings, criticized the practice of "compromising the nature of things to suit my nature" and put forward that "the nature of all things is precious." Both his splash-ink and the freehand brushwork of Zhu Lanshi's paintings focus on expressing his personality, thoughts and feelings. Calligraphy is more difficult to change and innovate, but in the hands of Zheng Xie, Liu Shu was almost washed away. In the poem, it is even more straightforward, and it is proposed that "tireless in the past, gas and meaning are born together." Here, generate shows the spark of early democratic thought. As a writer and artist, Zheng Xie should occupy a place in the history of China's thoughts.