Character introduction:
Dong Qichang (1555— 1636), a native of Huating, Songjiang (now Maqiao, Minhang District, Shanghai), was a painter and calligrapher in the Ming Dynasty. In the seventeenth year of Wanli, he was a scholar and was awarded editing by the Hanlin Academy. He became an official of Nanjing Ritual Department, and changed his name to "Wen Min" after his death. In the seventeenth year of Wanli (1589), he was admitted to imperial academy for editing. Zhu Changluo, the eldest son of the emperor.
He has served as deputy envoys of Huguang, Fujian and Henan, and resigned due to illness. In the first year of Taichang (1620), Zhu Changluo, Emperor Guangzong of Ming Dynasty, succeeded to the throne, and granted Taichang Shaoqing and Guo Zi the post of Ming Shenzong. In the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625), he became the minister of Nanjing Ritual Department and resigned due to something. Chongzhen five years (1632), as the crown prince. Chongzhen seven years (1634), returned to his hometown.
Dong Qichang is good at painting mountains and rivers, learning from Dong Yuan, Huang and Ni Zan, and his brushwork is delicate and neutral, quiet and elegant; Clean and bright with ink fragrance, gentle and plain; Green, simple and generous. He is an outstanding representative of Huating School of Painting and has the beauty of "Yan Gu Zhao Zi". His painting and painting theory had a great influence on the painting world in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Calligraphy in and out of the Jin and Tang dynasties, sui generis, can make poetry. Li Zhimin, a professor and pioneer of Peking University, commented: "Dong Qichang advocated learning from the past and making the past serve the present, but his superstitious thoughts on the charm of calligraphy were even worse than those of the ancients".
The existing works include Rock House Map, Eight Scenes of Autumn in Dong Qichang in Ming Dynasty, Map of Zhou Jintang, Pipa of Bai Juyi, Poems in Cursive Script, Postscript of Jiang Yan and so on. He is the author of Essays on Painting Zen Rooms, Collected Works of Rong Tai, Notes on Xihongtang (Block Edition) and so on.