Dǒng Qíchāng(1555-1636) was a painter, scholar, calligrapher, and art theorist of the later period of the Ming. Events Russia breaks 60 year old truce with Sweden by attacking Finland February 2 - Diet of Augsburg begins February 4 - John Rogers becomes first Protestant martyr in England February 9 - Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake May 23 - Paul IV becomes Pope. ... Events February 24 - King Christian of Denmark gives an order that all beggars that are able to work must be sent to Brinholmen Island to build ships or as galley rowers March 26 - Utrecht University founded in The Netherlands. ... The Ming Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; Pinyin: míng cháo) was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, though claims to the Ming throne (now collectively called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662. ...

Painter

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. His views on expression had importance to later "individualist" painters. This article is about the concept of abstraction in general. ... Yuan (Traditional: 元 or 圓; Simplified: 元; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: yüan) is, in Chinese, the base unit of a currency, for example, US dollar is Mei yuan (美元). However, in international context, Yuan as an English word refers to the Renminbi (RMB¥, CN$). The English pronunciation is /ju:æn/, although in Chinese the...

Art theory

He considered there to be a Northern school, represented by Zhe, and a Southern school represented by literati painters. This name is misleading as it refers to Northern and Southern schools of Chan Buddhism thought rather then geography. Hence a Northern painter could be geographically from the south and a Southern painter geographically from the north. In any event he strongly favored the Southern school and dismissed the Northern school as superficial or merely decorative. Chan can be variation of 陳 (Chen), a Chinese family name. ...

Scholar and calligrapher

Dong Qichang was the son of a teacher and something of a child prodigy. At 12 he passed the prefectural civil service 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. After that he tutored princes and had a role in government for the next 45 years. A child prodigy, or simply prodigy, is someone who is a master of one or more skills or arts at an early age. ... The imperial examinations (科舉, kējǔ) in dynastic China determined positions in the civil service, which had promoted upward mobility among the people for centuries. ...

His positions in the bureacracy 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 the tense relations with the eunuchs common to the scholar bureaucracy.

References

• Masterpieces of Chinese Art (pages 106 and 109), by Rhonda and Jeffrey Cooper, Todtri Productions, 1997. ISBN 1577170601
• Artnet article
• WWU article
• Calligraphy by him at Chinapage
• Paintings at the site of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston