Zheng Huangniu is a typical figure in Zen literature and painting. Spread in the world, his appearance, facial expression, experiences, personality and Zen style are transformed into the forms of writing, calligraphy and Chinese ink painting. A number of changes are made in the process. These changes reflect the conversion of Zen's method of expressing the Buddhism and the style of times, and conform to the development law of the mutual illation of Zen literature and painting. Literature and painting on the theme of Zheng Huangniu mostly refer to the literatures in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zen quotations, paintings and painting eulogies were popular, and a perfect picture-text system combining books, paintings, history and Buddhist verses was established. At that time, the images and characters on the theme of Zheng Huangniu were mutually proved and the illation was formed in the process of artistic processing and feature enhancement. This phenomenon was mainly found in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The thematic paintings and literatures of Zheng Huangniu in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were closely related in details. Typical examples were Chen Hongshou's Painting of Zheng Huangniu in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties and Ji Yin's Zongtong Annals in the Qing Dynasty. In this paper, the phenomenon of mutual proving and illation between the literature and painting on Zheng Huangniu in modern times is sorted out, and the causes of this phenomenon are discussed.
