BOSTON.- The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston presents the exhibit Understanding the Master: Dong Qichang and His Circle through January 7, 2007. The controversial painter Dong Qichang (1555–1626) is alternately regarded as the greatest artist in Chinese history or simply clumsy with the brush. “Understanding the Master: Dong Qichang and His Circle” confronts Dong’s complexity by offering a rich selection of his works, centering on the famous sketchbook where he first tested his ideas. These deceptively simple sketches of rocks and trees provide a rare glimpse into Dong’s analytical method and serve as a key to appreciating his mature works, which are also on view in the gallery. In addition, paintings by Dong’s friends and followers in this exhibition provide critical context for understanding the great master.

Tung Chi-Chang was a native of Hua-ting, Siangsu. His familiar-name was Huan-tsai, his sobriquets Ssu-pai and Hsiang-kuang. Tung Chi-Chang was hightly reparded as a youth by elder members of an elite group of literary men gathered around Wang Shih-chen, but for some reason Tung was unable to pass the chu-jen examinations at first. He turned to Chan (Zen) Buddhism and studied a branch known as "Mad Chan" under the quite eccentric leader of the school Lu Chih. Tung finally passed his chin-shih examination, and began a checkered career as an official that reached as high as Minister of the Board of Rites.

Tung Chi-chang was the principal spokesman and theoretical leader of a tightly knit group of literati who set the underlying critical and theoretical tone of painting and calligraphy for the next three-hundred years. In painting and calligraphy Tung sought and and achieved a return to a style of strong and sometimes even provocative impact. His calligraphy is always full-bodied and rounded, looking backwards to the great calligraphers of the Sung and Yuan periods.