The Natural Romantic and Uncontrolled Rigidity in the Art of Xu Wei's Painting

This paper takes as the background the trends of thought in Master Xu Wei's lifetime and his own vicissitudes in life. From Xu's art works and views o n traditional Chinese painting, the authors try to pursue his process of art cre ation which elaborates the style of expressing human beings' natural disposition and intelligence, and approach his individual aesthetic tendency owing to his i deological deviation from the old Ming-dynasty way of thinking, and his pursuit of the spiritual realm of being playful in painting and romantic and uncontroll ed in and his poetic art style of being neglectful of form but des irous of vigour and vitality, so as to understand his unique scholastic style in painting and his puckish charming personality of being ignorant of current affairs but skilled in art.