Dong Qichang's son caused disaster
Dong Qichang (1555-1636) was a famous scholar in the Ming Dynasty, especially famous for his calligraphy and painting. In painting, Dong Qichang is a representative figure of the famous painting school "Huating School" in the Ming Dynasty; in calligraphy, Dong Qichang is as famous as the famous calligraphers Xing Tong, Mi Wanzhong and Zhang Ruiguo in the late Ming Dynasty, and is sometimes called South Dong and North Mi. Dong Qichang was also rich in collecting, and his family had a large number of precious paintings, calligraphy, and antiques. He was once the Minister of Rites in Nanjing and had extensive contacts.
In the late Ming Dynasty, party strife was very intense. In order to avoid party trouble, Dong Qichang resigned from his official position as deputy envoy of Huguang University and lived in his hometown of Songjiang.
In the forty-third year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1615), Dong Quan, son of Dong Qichang, fell in love with Luying, the daughter of local student Lu Zhaofang, and wanted to marry her. The Lu family refused. As a father, Dong Qichang not only failed to discipline his son, but actually allowed his son and his family to attack the Lu family. Therefore, Dong Quan led many slaves in the family, rushed into the Lu family at the second watch of the night, plundered property wantonly, injured many people in the Lu family, and took Lu Ying away by force. Followed by occupation. Lu Zhaofang sued the government. Dong Qichang counterattacked and accused his staff Xia Shangwen of slandering Lu Zhaofang. Lu Zhaofang had no choice but to follow the government's advice.
However, this incident caused injustice among the people of Songjiang. At that time, someone wrote "Black and White Biography" to describe this matter. Once this book was written, it was widely circulated among the people, so much so that storytellers also gave lectures on "The Biography of Black and White" in folk bookstores.
In the forty-fourth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1616), Dong Qichang, who had always been worried about the spread of "Black and White Biography" among the people, suspected that the author of "Black and White Biography" was Fan Chang, an in-law and a member of the family. In order to vent his personal anger, Dong Mingchang reported Fan Chang to the Songjiang government office. He also used officials to oppress people, and scolded, humiliated, and beat Fan Chang and the storyteller Qian Er. Fan Chang and Qian Er were forced to kneel in the government office and swear that "The Legend of Black and White" was not their fault. In this way, Fan Chang was released and returned home. After returning home, Fan Chang became ill from shame and anger, and died of depression within a few days. Fan's mother was in pain after hurting her son, and Fan Chang's wife (Dong Qichang's sister-in-law) was mourning the death of her husband. They led the women in the family to cry to Dong Qichang. Dong Qichang did not want to reflect, but even the thugs destroyed the sedan chair in which Fan's mother and wife were riding in the river, and took all the women into Dong's house, closed the door, stripped all the women's clothes, and beat them hard. Then the door was opened, and the beaten woman, who was naked, with mud on her face and bleeding profusely, was pushed out of Dong's house. Dong Quan sat at the door of the mansion and shouted to the people watching: "This is an example." When the people saw this tragic scene, they were extremely angry.
After this incident, most people in Songjiang felt resentful towards the Fan family. Songjiang's juren and students jointly filed a lawsuit against the Songjiang government office. Posters and flyers accusing Dong Qichang filled the streets and alleys, and children and women rushed to recite: "If you want to make money, kill Dong Qichang first."
Dong Qichang knew that he had deep grudges in the village, so in order to protect himself, He himself hired hundreds of thugs to guard the house at home.
On March 16, the forty-fourth year of Wanli, thugs hired by Dong Qichang showed off their power in front of Dong's house, yelling and beating the people. The people of Songjiang couldn't bear it anymore. They gathered more than 10,000 people and rushed into Dong's house. They beat Dong's thugs angrily, then demolished the houses and then set fire to Dong's house. The luxurious Dong house, along with a large number of precious paintings, calligraphy and antiques, were burned to the ground. Dong's father and son were like bereaved dogs. They fled with their family in a hurry and hid in a friend's house.
This is the famous "incident of civilian copying Dong Huan" in the late Ming Dynasty.
Using power and wealth to bully others will eventually ruin your reputation.