Dong Qichang’s Calligraphic Achievements—“From Essence of Jin, the Method of Tang, and the Spirit of Song”

董其昌的书法成就----晋人书取韵，唐人书取法，宋人书取意

【Editor’s Note： Dong Qichang’s legacy in calligraphy lies not in a dedicated treatise but in the insights scattered across his colophons and commentaries. His renowned statement—“From Essence of Jin, the Method of Tang, and the Spirit of Song”—was groundbreaking, defining the distinct aesthetic focus of each dynasty for the first time in calligraphic theory. This perspective profoundly shaped the study and appreciation of classical calligraphy. Dong’s commitment to art, paired with his long life, resulted in a vast body of surviving works. Among his most celebrated pieces are Bai Juyi’s Pipa Xing (《白居易琵琶行》), Three Imperial Edicts (《三世诰命》), Cursive-Script Poetry Album (《草书诗册》), Inscription on “Layers of Peaks along the Misty River” (《烟江叠嶂图跋》), Eulogy on Ni Kuan (《倪宽赞》), and the albums of The First and Second Red Cliff Rhapsodies (《前后赤壁赋册》).】

Dong Qichang (董其昌) was known in his time for his contributions to calligraphy under the collective moniker “Xing, Zhang, Mi, and Dong,” placing him alongside Xing Tong (邢侗) of Linyi (临沂), Zhang Ruitu (张瑞图) of Jinjiang (晋江), and Mi Wanzhong (米万钟). In painting, critics spoke of “Southern Dong and Northern Mi,” while he and Mo Shilong (莫是龙) as well as Chen Jiru (陈继儒) advanced the theory of “Southern and Northern Schools.” This approach artificially divided the so-called “Academy style” landscape paintings from “literati paintings,” assigning each to a northern or southern lineage.

Over the course of his life, Dong Qichang produced an astonishing number of calligraphic and painterly works. Among these, his copies and adaptations of earlier masters’ paintings and poetic calligraphy formed a key part of his oeuvre. In his Huachanshi Suibi (《画禅室随笔》), he wrote that to “read ten thousand volumes of books” is essential: anyone aspiring to artistic mastery must draw on tradition and learn from the great figures of the past. He began studying calligraphy at age 17 by closely imitating Yan Zhenqing’s (颜真卿) Duobao Pagoda Stele (《多宝塔》); at 22, he turned to painting, taking Huang Gongwang (黄公望) as his model. Later, he diligently studied a wide array of styles. This method of learning from past masters continued well into his eighties and became a lifelong practice. By assimilating the strengths of the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties and probing their core techniques with keen discernment, Dong achieved artistry in both calligraphy and painting that surpassed even his revered predecessors.

Although Dong Qichang emphasized learning from earlier masters, he opposed any purely mechanical form of imitation. As his experience and ideas matured, he remained grounded in the techniques of those who came before him but chose judiciously what to adopt and what to discard, weaving in his own creative spirit. He believed that without genuine personal innovation, one could not capture the essence of the ancients. Thus, one should employ an original form to convey the “inner spirit” of those older traditions. Drawing on his profound understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in historical calligraphy and painting, he combined various techniques with his own brushwork, melding and transforming them until he established a singular style of his own.

Dong Qichang’s achievements in calligraphy are considerable. His highest attainments were in running and cursive scripts, though he held his regular script, especially in smaller characters, in equally high regard. Despite living at a time when the calligraphy of Zhao Mengfu (赵孟頫) and Wen Zhengming (文征明) enjoyed preeminent status, he did not merely follow in these masters’ footsteps. Instead, he blended the calligraphic styles of the Jin, Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties into something uniquely his own. His writing is marked by an ethereal grace and self-possessed poise, with strokes that are rounded, firm, and elegant, retaining an air of simple antiquity. His brush is impeccably upright, rarely showing any flattened or clumsy edges. In the compositional arrangement, each character and line is precisely laid out, with balanced spacing that faithfully hews to classical principles. His mastery of ink—alternating dryness and saturation, light and dark—was equally refined. By the time calligraphy reached Dong Qichang, one could say he had synthesized all earlier methods. He excelled in every “Six Style” and “Eight Method,” and by his era, his reputation spread even beyond China. “A single sheet or a mere note, circulating among people, was eagerly sought and treasured” (《明史·文苑传》). All the way through the mid-Qing Dynasty, both the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors revered Dong’s work, regarding it as a primary exemplar. They lavished praise upon it and even practiced copying it by hand, keeping his calligraphy near at all times to admire. The Kangxi Emperor once wrote an extensive colophon lauding Dong’s art:

“Dong Qichang of Huating (华亭) has calligraphic gifts far beyond the norm. His high, graceful, and rounded style flows from the inkwells of Chu Suiliang, unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Time and again, in what looks almost offhand, he reveals a transcendent beauty—like a gentle breeze or drifting clouds, it captures a thoroughly natural spirit. Observing how he structures each character, one sees clear roots in the Jin masters. Throughout his life, he copied the Ge Tie, and so he grasped the technique of wrist movement; yet in turning his brush, he maintains a powerful restraint, hiding the tip with a seeming clumsiness that is, in fact, supremely skillful. Though Yan Zhenqing, Su Shi, and Mi Fu each possessed a bold and striking individuality, their achievements ultimately trace back to the Jin. Zhao Mengfu, too, modeled himself closely on the Two Wangs. Dong Qichang unifies these sources so thoroughly that whenever he copies any of the old masters, he invariably captures their essence, and his own distinctive elegance regularly shines through. Even his cursive script, with its sweeping abandon, has a spirited dynamism that delights me. His grasp of ink, deftly shifting from dark to light, is especially marvelous. I have tried to imitate him often and find that his natural gift and honed skill are truly exceptional.

”It is said that the Kangxi Emperor personally made copies of Dong’s calligraphy, spurring a vogue that saw the entire court attempting to emulate him. For a time, scholars seeking official posts turned to Dong’s style as a shortcut to fame. During the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng, no other calligrapher enjoyed comparable influence. Of course, Dong Qichang’s work has met with both acclaim and criticism over the centuries. Admirers have exhausted the language of praise. The eminent Qing scholar and calligrapher Wang Wenzhi (王文治), in his Lunshu Jueju (《论书绝句》), rated Dong’s calligraphy as “divine among the art.” Xie Zhao (谢肇) remarked that “his strokes often have no true predecessor.” And Zhou Zhishi (周之士) pronounced, “From the Six Styles and Eight Methods, there is nothing he does not master. He transcends Su and flows into Mi, and his splendor and spirit are so lofty it is as though he could drift off to join the immortals.” Yet critics such as Bao Shichen (包世臣) and Kang Youwei (康有为) voiced strong objections. Bao Shichen wrote, “His strokes occasionally betray a certain emptiness and timidity,” while Kang Youwei, in his Guangyi Zhou Shuangji (《广艺舟双楫》), made a pointed jest: “Though Xiangguang (Dong Qichang) enjoys great renown, he is like a Taoist who has fasted too long—his energy is meager and cold. Faced with a general rallying his troops and erecting towering fortifications, with flags changing color before battle, he would surely shrink back and not dare descend from the mountain!”

Dong Qichang did not leave behind a single dedicated treatise on calligraphy. Nonetheless, his thoughts and insights, drawn from a lifetime of practice and study, appear throughout his many colophons and commentaries. Among his most famous lines is: “From the Jin masters, one seeks rhythm (韵); from the Tang, one seeks method (法); and from the Song, one seeks concept or ideas (意).” This was the first time in the history of calligraphic theory that anyone used those three concepts—rhythm, method, and concept—to define the aesthetic orientations of the Jin, Tang, and Song dynasties, respectively. These observations have greatly aided the understanding and appreciation of classical calligraphy. His dedicated pursuit of painting and calligraphy, combined with his long life, meant that a large number of his works have survived. Representative pieces include Bai Juyi’s Pipa Xing (《白居易琵琶行》), Three Imperial Edicts (《三世诰命》), the Cursive-Script Poetry Album (《草书诗册》), Inscription on “Layers of Peaks along the Misty River” (《烟江叠嶂图跋》), Eulogy on Ni Kuan (《倪宽赞》), and the Albums on “The First and Second Red Cliff Rhapsodies” (《前后赤壁赋册》).

This translation is an independent yet well-intentioned effort by the China Thought Express editorial team to bridge ideas between the Chinese and English-speaking worlds. The original text is available here:

https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_9866677

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