By examining the historical background from 1892 to 1996 in China, this paper adopts the concept of “later style” to discuss the artistic development and characteristics of the pictures created by the contemporary painter Zhu Qizhan. The author also proposes the idea of “playfulness in body and mind” as a vision to reflect the historical change of modern ink paintings. Zhu Qizhan studied oil painting in Japan in his early years and returned to ink painting in his old age. During the period of Cultural Revolution, he put a lot of effort on analyzing and studying traditional paintings. He successfully established his personal style after 1980s. This paper describes the historical and cultural aspects on Zhu’s late year paintings. With comparison to various creation periods, the problem of how Zhu succeeded and broke through traditional painting techniques, the reflection of stylistic change of the Shanghai School and the relationship between Zhu’s painting theory with the modern one are being elaborated. The author tried to give an account for Zhu’s contributions to the Chinese art history and cultural value. The preface tries to explain “style” in terms of ancient texts of Chinese painting and calligraphy, and proposes to combine the analytic method of individual style and period style. It stresses on tracing the historical fact and the mind development of the artist in order to define “later period style”. Chapter one describes Zhu’s experience on learning oil painting and ink painting in his early years, and the influence of peer during his study in Japan so as to explore the common concerns and general problems on painting history at that time. Besides, Zhu Qizhan established the concept of nationality during his early writing and drawing activities and reinforced this concept in his late years paintings. Chapter two analyzes Zhu’s response to the politicalization and depoliticalization during 50s and 60s period. He interested in the techniques from the ancient paintings, and applied them to various social themes in order to express his personal feeling. Chapter three proposes the concept of “labour” to explain how Zhu Qizhan used the body of old man to redefine heroism in figure paintings. He developed his own painting theory on the basis of theory of six principles of painting and the research of painting history of individual style. The publication of Pi Si Ju Hua Tan summarized his thoughts. Moreover, this article analyses the aspects of using contrast color, the combination of yellow, blue and green colors as the echo of Yang Sheng’s “mo-ku” landscape tradition, the emphasis of light and season and the use of literal theme in Zhu Qizhan’s life paintings. During the 1970s, Zhu built up a firm foundation for late year’s reform by imitating ancient paintings, after that, he tried to develop a new style through his exploration based on philosophical themes. In the 1980s, the new definition of picture and history arose, Zhu Qizhan expressed his grieve of war period and mourn for the nation under the new artistic environment. He interacted with different social stratum and established his position as a Shanghai School painter. This article discussed the cultural significance of birth celebration activities in the circle of Chinese ink painters. Chapter four comments on the relationship and succession of Zhu and Shanghai School by analyzing the learning process of Zhu’s calligraphy and recording his interaction with collectors and the experiences gained from visiting museums. His visit to America, Britain, Hong Kong and Singapore accelerated the integration of Eastern and Western paintings and the cultural interaction between different nations. This was part of his contribution during the process of “modernization” of ink painting. Chapter Five analyses the background of Zhu’s painting theory Pi Si Ju Hua Tan and introduces its content and comment. It summarizes Zhu’s viewpoint on “style” in his late years, and uses the concept of “playfulness of body and mind” to analyze the possible spirit inside contemporary ink paintings. Zhu’s creation experience reflects the turning point of Chinese art in the 80s. The struggle of Western and Eastern art has never been stopped. The definition of “reality” is one of the prominent propositions. In Zhu’s later paintings, what are the elements constituting the traditional art value? How did he express the “reality” in his mind and engaging in the new path of ink paintings? This paper tries to solve these problems by focusing on the modern historical context.