Dong Qichang
The theorist who shaped Chinese views of art.
Dong Qichang was an official, collector and painter. His theory of a Northern and a Southern School governed art criticism for centuries.
Dong Qichang was born in 1555 in Huating, in present-day Shanghai, into a family of limited means. He passed the highest state examination in 1589 and had a long career as an official. Among other things he was tutor to a future emperor and reached high posts in the government in Nanjing. At the same time he was one of the leading calligraphers, painters, collectors and connoisseurs of his time.
He is best known for his theory of a Northern and a Southern School of Chinese painting. The theory borrowed its terms from Chan Buddhism, in which the Southern School stood for sudden enlightenment. According to Dong Qichang, the Southern School was the tradition of the scholar-amateurs, which began with Wang Wei and continued with the masters of the Yuan dynasty. The Northern School consisted of professional and court painters, whom he considered less valuable. The division has little to do with geography and is strongly questioned today, but it governed Chinese art criticism for centuries.
As a painter Dong Qichang did not want to depict nature but to build pictures from the brushstrokes and forms of the old masters. His landscapes are often distorted and abstract, with mountains stacked and tilted in a way that can recall modern art. A well-known example is The Qingbian Mountains of 1617 in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
His private life was not spotless. In 1616 an enraged mob burned down his home in Huating after accusations that his sons had oppressed the local population. His theories nonetheless had decisive influence. The so-called Orthodox School of the Qing, with the Four Wangs, was built entirely on his ideas, and he is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese art.