谁说文人只爱梅兰竹菊？谁说牡丹只能雍容华贵，荷叶必然清丽脱俗？
在明代著名书画家徐渭眼中，草木不分贵贱，都是生命，皆可入画。芭蕉、南瓜、扁豆、紫藤，这些杂花可能并不为其他人所青睐，却是徐渭的心头好。他以奔放淋漓的水墨、变化多端的笔锋，寥寥数笔勾勒出这些花草果木的特征，不求形似，但求生韵，展现出一种狂放不羁、恣意自然之美。《杂花图》卷更是其大写意水墨画的扛鼎之作，将中国水墨艺术推向新的高峰。中央广播电视总台大型文化节目《诗画中国》通过采集笔触与合成视觉技术，让钢琴家郎朗置身《杂花图》卷中；随着歌曲节奏的变化，水墨不同程度地晕染开，奏响数字水墨的乐章。
现收藏于南京博物院的《杂花图》卷被誉为中国大写意水墨画的典范之作。清雅脱俗的牡丹、顶天立地的梧桐、郁郁葱葱的芭蕉叶……十三种植物在十余米长的画卷中以单纯的水墨形式展开，既相互关联，例如几笔肆意点染的菊花、南瓜、扁豆、紫薇自成一个章节，又相互独立，或正或斜，或聚或散。徐渭用一种“等量齐观”的自然观看待万物，并赋予他笔下的花木以新意。
徐渭作品《杂花图》卷
中国画因表现手法不同，分为工笔和写意。因笔墨强弱不同，写意又可分为大写意与小写意，徐渭擅长的正是以大笔蘸水墨直接画出、很少着色的大写意花鸟画。在代表作《杂花图》卷中，徐渭以疾飞狂扫的豪放气势，信笔涂抹，时而如狂风乍起，点线飞舞，时而如骤雨初歇，笔住墨涸，整幅画作富于情感变化，仿佛一曲跌宕起伏的乐章。
徐渭作品《杂花图》卷（局部）
而这种纵横奔放的风格与徐渭的人生经历不无关系。徐渭出生在没落的官宦世家，虽才华横溢，但赶考八次均未中举，一生穷困潦倒。在北京师范大学副校长康震看来，人生的大起大落塑造出徐渭愤世嫉俗、悲天悯人的个性，以及挥洒自如、翻江倒海的创作风格。
动画特效展示钢琴家郎朗演奏水墨交响
徐渭有技法，他能够在大写意水墨画中将泼墨、焦墨、破墨等多种墨法并用；同时，他有性情，能够将郁结不平之气抒发于笔端，以墨写神，开创了中国大写意水墨花鸟画的新局面，将中国水墨艺术推向新的高峰。
Who says that Chinese literati painters only love the "Four Gentlemen" (plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum)? Who says that peony flowers always have to look dignified and graceful in literati paintings? Who says that lotus leaves always have to be presented in a fresh and refined style by literati painters?
Xu Wei, a famous calligrapher and artist from the Ming Dynasty highly esteemed for his freehand brushwork, preferred wild flowers like the lentil, pumpkin and wisteria. In his view, all plants are created equal and worth painting, a philosophy well embodied by his representative work, "Miscellaneous Plants."
Produced by China Media Group, the cultural program "China in Poetry and Painting" invited renowned pianist Lang Lang to play a piece that synthesizes the Chinese folk song "Moli Hua" (Jasmine Flower) with Claude Debussy's "Moonlight" and Edvard Grieg's "Piano Concerto," thus translating the visual aesthetic of this ancient masterpiece into an exciting auditory sensation to give audiences a special treat.
Now housed at the Nanjing Museum, "Miscellaneous Plants" is Xu Wei's representative work of freehand brushwork in ink-wash painting. Not only did he depict 13 kinds of plants on the 10-meter-long scroll, including the peony, pomegranate, wisteria, pumpkin, plum blossom, lotus leaves and bamboo, but he intentionally changed their nature by painting them with ink and wash while eschewing most of the colors at his disposal.
Xu Wei once said that when painting his subjects, he never sought verisimilitude but rather aimed to capture their spirit. To achieve that goal, he unleashed his brush with passionate abandon in his ink paintings, galloping vertically and horizontally across his canvas and dripping ink on the paper without any restrictions. As both a calligrapher and a painter, Xu integrated his calligraphy skills and techniques into his ink paintings to infuse them with a greater energy and presence.
In the view of Beijing Normal University Professor Kang Zhen, Xu's unrestrained brushwork relates to his turbulent life. Born to a powerful family on the wane, Xu attempted to pass the civil service examinations eight times without any luck. So in his later years, he was able to use all of his past grief and express this whirlwind of torment and emotion with his brushwork, using lines of varying size, hurried texture strokes, and wet and diluted ink.
The acclaimed shrimp painter Qi Baishi once said, "How I wish I had been born 300 years earlier so I could grind ink and prepare paper for Green Vine (one of Xu Wei's pen names)." By using swaying and indulgent brush and ink techniques, Xu not only depicted his subjects clearly and simply, but also expressed his own strong emotions in his art. Such pioneering efforts were highly appreciated by future generations, ultimately pushing Chinese freehand paintings of flowers and birds to a whole new level.
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