Dong Qichang

Also known as Zi Xuanzai · Hao Sibai

Dong Qichang, courtesy name Xuanzai, came from Huating in Songjiang and gained his jinshi in 1589, entering the Hanlin Academy and later lecturing to the emperor's eldest son, the future Taichang emperor. Out of favour with the senior ministers, he was sent to Huguang, where as education intendant he refused favours to powerful families, whose students wrecked his office, and he resigned and stayed at home for years. Recalled after his former pupil came to the throne, he collected memorials of the Wanli reign in the south for the official history, and in 1625 he became minister of rites in Nanjing, but with the eunuch Wei Zhongxian in power he left the next year. He served again under Chongzhen and retired with the title of grand guardian of the heir apparent, dying in 1636 aged eighty-three. In calligraphy he began from Mi Fu and formed his own style, and in painting he borrowed the Chan division into Northern and Southern schools to rank landscape traditions, favouring the scholar-amateurs.