Dong Qichang

Wang Shimin is recorded as having studied under Dong Qichang. The recorded working language is Classical Chinese and Old Mandarin. The field of work recorded is painting and shan shui. Mi Fu, Dong Yuan and Juran are recorded as an influence. Positions recorded include Hanlin Academy bianxiu and Minister of Rites. Work by Dong Qichang is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fralin Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery.

Dong Qichang was a native of Hua Ting (located in modern-day Shanghai), the son of a teacher and somewhat precocious as a child. At 12, he passed the prefectural Civil service entrance examination and won a coveted spot at the prefectural Government school. He first took the imperial civil service exam at seventeen, but placed second to a cousin because his calligraphy was clumsy. This led him to train until he became a noted calligrapher. Once this occurred, he rose up the ranks of the imperial service passing the highest level at the age of 35. He rose to an official position with the Ministry of Rites. Qichang's calligraphy drew inspiration from prominent calligraphers Wen Zhengming and Zhao Mengfu and of the masters of the Jin and Tang dynasties. • Illustration — Landscape with Calligraphy, Tokyo National Museum. His positions in the bureaucracy were not without controversy. In 1605 he was giving the exam when the candidates demonstrated against him causing his temporary retirement. In other cases he insulted and beat women who came to his home with grievances. That led to his house being burned down by an angry mob. He also had tense relations with the eunuchs common to the scholar bureaucracy. Dong's tomb in Songjiang District was vandalized during the Cultural Revolution, and his body dressed in official Ming court robes, was desecrated by Red Guards.

His work favored expression over formal likeness. He also avoided anything he deemed to be slick or sentimental. This led him to create landscapes with intentionally distorted spatial features. Still his work was in no way abstract as it took elements from earlier Yuan masters, specifically, the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty. His views on expression had importance to later "individualist" painters.