生平

生于嘉靖三十四年（1555年）一月十九日，生于南直隶松江府上海县（今属上海市）董家汇，早年在平湖城西门冯大参家坐馆当过塾师，爱好参禅曹洞宗，与新埭镇泖口陆兆芳友好。

隆庆五年（1571年），十七岁参加松江府会考，因松江知府衷贞吉认为董写字太差，只得第二名，从此发愤临池，从学于陆树声、莫如忠等，得益不少。万历七年（1579年）参加应天乡试，见王羲之《官奴帖》唐摹本，惊叹不已。

万历十六年（1588年）参加戊子科顺天乡试第三名举人。万历十七年（1589年）己丑科第二甲第一名进士，授翰林院庶吉士，入翰林院学习，礼部左侍郎田一俊病故，护丧到田氏的家乡福建，万历二十年（1592年）春，获授翰林院编修。万历二十二年（1594年）皇长子朱常洛出阁讲学，充任讲官。万历二十六年（1598年）任湖广按察司副使。万历三十二年（1604年）出任湖广提学副使。

泰昌元年（1620年）明光宗即位，为太常寺少卿、掌国子司业事。

天启二年（1622年）参修《泰昌实录》。天启五年（1625年）官至南京礼部尚书。天启六年（1626年）辞官。

崇祯四年（1631年）任礼部尚书、掌詹事府事，同阉党阮大铖过从甚密。

崇祯九年（1636年）九月二十八日戌时病逝于松江居所，享寿八十二岁。谥文敏。

著作

著有《容台集》、《容台别集》、《画禅室随笔》。

书画

董其昌绘画擅长山水，师法董源、倪瓒等人，喜纯用水墨。书法初学颜真卿的《多宝塔帖》，之后改学虞世南，又溯及魏、晋，临摹锺繇、王羲之，参以李邕和柳公权，特色“平淡天真”。其山水画如《关山雪霁图》、《秋兴八景册》、《江干三树图》、《山川出云图》、《山居图》属明朝的巅峰之作。传世书法作品以行书最多，代表作品有小楷书《月赋》，继祝枝山、文徵明后对后世极有影响，康熙帝就酷爱董其昌书法，一生临写董字甚丰，曾遍搜董氏真迹。唯董其昌生前索画者多，董其昌往往请人代笔。

• 

  《夏木垂阴》，高321.9cm，宽102.3cm，藏于台湾台北国立故宫博物院

 
• 

  《婉娈草堂图》，1597年

 
• 

  《仿范宽谿山行旅图》，约1600年

家庭

• 长子董祖源，娶内阁大学士申时行的外甥女
• 次子董祖常

佚事

崇祯七年自画像

董其昌之父董汉儒，少年诸生，早故。万历己丑，董其昌梦见与其父同榜中式，自以为不吉。榜发，董其昌中第二名。而同榜真有名董汉儒之人。

万历三十二年（1604年）冬，董其昌受命出任湖广提学副使，将“明日不考文”当作了考试题，以愚弄学生为乐。

董其昌与其子董祖常豢养陈明、施心旭、吴龙、朱观等恶痞，放债霸产、诱奸民女，万历四十三年（1615年）九月陆兆芳家的使女绿英被董其昌奸淫得逞，藏娇于白龙潭“护珠阁”。绿英乘隙逃回泖口，其昌唆使其子祖权带领家奴一百多人前往陆家庄，劫走绿英，地方官府不敢办案。有华亭县学学生范昶将其恶行编撰《黑白传》，有“白公子夜袭陆家庄，黑秀才怒斥龙门里”的书目（陆秀才肤色较黑，董其昌别号思白），说书人钱二到处说唱，结果范昶被痛殴，不日暴死。董氏又对范氏家属加以凌逼，终于激起民愤。

万历四十四年三月十五爆发“民抄董宦”一案，儿童妇女竞相传播“若要柴米强（强，方言，指廉价），先杀董其昌”的民谣，当地乡民以至上海、青浦、金山等处的报怨者将董家200余间画栋雕梁、朱栏曲槛烧成灰烬，董其昌搜集的古今珍贵书画篆刻收藏，全付之一炬。

参考文献

引用

书籍

• 任道斌《董其昌系年》
• 《民抄董宦事实》
• 《明通鉴》
• 张子宁：〈董其昌画山水的历程〉。
• 方闻：〈董其昌与正统画论〉。
• 董其昌；井土霊山日译“画眼”‘书道及画道第三巻第九号’
• 董其昌；井土霊山日译“画眼（二）”‘书道及画道第二巻第十号’

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.

Art theory

Dong Qichang, In the silence of a mountain lake, c. 1602. National Museum, Warsaw.

He considered there to be a Northern school, represented by Zhe, and a Southern school represented by literati painters. These names are misleading as they refer to Northern and Southern schools of Chan Buddhism thought rather than geographic areas. 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.

His ideal of Southern school painting was one where the artist forms a new style of individualistic painting by building on and transforming the style of traditional masters. This was to correspond with sudden enlightenment, as favored by Southern Chan Buddhism. He was a great admirer of Mi Fu and Ni Zan. By relating to the ancient masters' style, artists are to create a place for themselves within the tradition, not by mere imitation, but by extending and even surpassing the art of the past. Dong's theories, combining veneration of past masters with a creative forward looking spark, would be very influential on Qing Dynasty artists as well as collectors, "especially some of the newly rich collectors of Sungchiang, Huichou in Southern Anhui, Yangchou, and other places where wealth was concentrated in this period". Together with other early self-appointed arbiters of taste known as the Nine Friends, he helped determine which painters were to be considered collectible (or not). As Cahill points out, such men were the forerunners of today's art historians. His classifications were quite perceptive and he is credited with being "the first art historian to do more than list and grade artists."

Scholar and calligrapher

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.

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 the 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.

Gallery

References

• Xiao, Yanyi, "Dong Qichang". Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed.
• Masterpieces of Chinese Art (pages 106 and 109), by Rhonda and Jeffrey Cooper, Todtri Productions, 1997. ISBN 1-57717-060-1
• WWU article
• Bryant, Shelly. The Classical Gardens of Shanghai. Hong Kong University Press, 2016. p. 26-40.

Notes

External links

• Calligraphy Gallery of Dong Qichang at China Online Museum
• Painting Gallery of Dong Qichang at China Online Museum
• Calligraphy by Dong Qichang at Chinapage
• The Biography of Dong Qichang and His Achievements in Calligraphy and Painting - Mild China
• Paintings at the site of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's online collection
• Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632-1717), an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Dong Qichang (see index)