However, his character was not highly appraised by later generations, although this did not affect his artistic achievements at all, for two reasons:
Robbery of civilians by force
Dong Qichang lived in the Ming Dynasty. Born in Jiajing, died in Chongzhen, and lived for more than eighty years. In ancient China, he was an absolute old man. Dong Qichang worked as an official in several dynasties, and his official voice was general, mainly related to his position. His main job is the writing work of Hanlin, and the work here is neither brilliant nor famous.
In the middle of Wanli, Dong Qichang tried to avoid the DPRK? National dispute? After ten years of leisure, he devoted himself to writing and painting, but his son was not idle. He used to be a Beijing official. Although he was an academician, he somehow fooled people, so he was a bit floating.
It started with a maid who wanted to change her family. She transferred from scholar Liu to Dong Qichang's domestic servant Chen Minggu. Lujia don't do it, Dong Qichang's son has always been used to bossiness. He gave his servant Chen Ming a head start and led people to rob the girl named Lu Ying in Lujia. In fact, this is job-hopping friction, but Dong Qichang's son is really a bit overbearing.
The point is that this matter has been made a big fuss by another scholar. This scholar named Fan Chang arranged a storytelling "black and white edition" to map Dong Qichang's bullying behavior. Dong Qichang, a humble scholar and a refined scholar, was very angry at this arrangement out of thin air. Just find someone to take the scholar Fan Chang home to confront him.
Dong Qichang's son is so domineering that his servant's attitude towards asking Fan Chang is certainly not much better. After seeing Dong Qichang, the scholar Fan Chang suddenly became unintelligent. He swore that he didn't do it, and Dong Qichang was a sour scholar. Since you don't admit that you did it, and you still curse, let's go to the temple and curse.
Scholar Fan Chang and Dong Qichang came back from the temple. Not long after, Fan Chang died suddenly, and public opinion became more turbulent. They think that Dong Qichang killed Fan Chang, so people who don't know the truth gathered to besiege Dong Fu and even ransack Dong Gu. Dong Qichang fled to other places for more than half a year before he dared to come back.
This is Dong Qichang's famous case of robbing civilian women. Dong Qichang's reputation of poor character and moral corruption can't be washed away after being rendered and processed by literati in past dynasties.
Dong Qichang is more unfair than Dou E!
First of all, the scholar Fan Chang had a grudge against Dong Qichang. Fan Chang took the imperial examination, and the examiner was his hometown of Dong Qichang. Fan Chang tried to bribe Dong Qichang, but Dong Qichang turned him down, which led to his failure.
Secondly, my son robbed Qingying girl for the sake of stating the truth, which has nothing to do with Dong Qichang. Finally, he said that Dong Qichang forced the girl to do it, and Dong Qichang was over 60 that year;
Finally, if Fan Chang is really persecuted to death by Dong Qichang, the government will naturally pursue it. This is a criminal case. As a retired academician, Dong Qichang has no energy to repair the government. No matter how anarchic Wanli Ming Dynasty was, criminal cases were still managed.
As can be seen from the above, it is far-fetched to discredit Dong Qichang's character and morality simply from such a civil dispute case. So why was Dong Qichang treated so critically? This is the second reason.
Scholars tend to despise each other.
Dong Qichang's name became a household name in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. What are his calligraphy? Zhang Xingmi Dong? Status, but also praised as having? Yan Gu Zhao Zi? Style, is Dong Qichang's painting original and admired? North and South sects? Theory, right? Huating school? Outstanding representative.
Dong Qichang's fame began in the Ming Dynasty. He can be said to have created a mountain peak at that time, which made the world's literati far behind, and his name was too high, which was bound to be envied. Dong Qichang is no exception, it happened in front of Dong Gu, and it was seized by scholars all over the world. If you can't reach the height of Dong Qichang in art, you can only discredit him from other aspects to balance his inner jealousy.
To sum up, Dong Qichang's artistic attainments must be blameless, but his character and virtue are still influenced by his reputation, but he will never be reduced to a shameless bully.