According to historical records, Dong Qichang's character is still relatively poor.
Dong Qichang was born in a poor family, and after he became famous through calligraphy and painting, he was so rich that even Xu Jie, the record of his fellow countryman and native land, lamented himself. The greater the fame, the faster the money will come, and once the art is tainted with the smell of copper, it is not far away to be rich and heartless, not to mention that he was a senior official at that time in addition to his superb calligraphy and painting.
Dong Qichang is arrogant and extravagant, running wild in the countryside, old and fishing, robbing the common people, and in his 6s, he still has a swollen sexual desire, and many concubines are addicted to the secret arts in the house, so extravagance is the norm.
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Dong Qichang is known as "Xing Zhang Mi Dong" in calligraphy, that is, he is juxtaposed with Linyi Xing Dong, Jinjiang Zhang Ruitu and Xutian Mi Zhong; There is a saying in painting that the south is east and the north is rice. Mo Shilong and Chen Jiru advocated the theory of "Northern and Southern Schools", that is, the landscape painting of "courtyard style" and "literati painting" were divided into two schools. There are countless paintings and calligraphy works created by Dong Qichang in his life, among which the paintings and poems of the near-antique people are an important part.
The "reading thousands of books" he said in "Essays on Painting a Zen Room" means that if one wants to be an artist, he must learn from tradition and the ancients.
When he began to learn calligraphy at the age of 17, he wrote Yan Zhenqing's "Many Pagodas". At the age of 22, he learned from Huang Gongwang when he studied painting, and then he learned from other schools all over the world. This practice of learning from the ancients continued for 8 years and accompanied him for life. He extensively absorbed the strengths of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties and explored the essence, which made his paintings and calligraphy achieve artistic achievements beyond the ancients.