Ni Zan

Ni Zan (1301–1374), art name Yunlin, was a Yuan painter and one of the Four Yuan Masters. He was born to a wealthy family in Wuxi.

In the 1340s famine and heavy taxation ruined it, and as rebellions spread he gave away his estates and lived twenty years on a houseboat, studying under Huang Gongwang.

After 1345 he developed his sparse ink landscapes of bare trees, empty water and distant banks with no human figures, painting ink bamboo to express spirit, not likeness. He returned to Wuxi in 1371, painting the Rongxi Studio the next year.