Acknowledged in his lifetime and ever since as foremost painter, calligrapher, connoisseur, and art theorist of the late Ming period--a towering figure in the history of Chinese art-- Tung Ch'i-ch'ang has been portrayed as a man concentrating his energies on artistic pursuits, whose official career was largely irrelevant, despite its considerable role in his life as he lived it. But a careful scrutiny of his career, in conjunction with his writings and works, suggests a different picture: of a man intensely ambitious to win official honors, and adept at securing--through gifts of his paintings and calligraphies, or the favor of his pronouncement as a connoisseur--the goodwill of those who could advance or safeguard his political fortunes. So successfully did he thread his way through the political maze--forming friendships with officials in the Tung-lin movement, with whom his natural sympathies lay (particularly with the chief Grand Secretary of the period, Yeh Hsiang-kao), but also with their opponents in the eunuch party (including such execrated figures as Feng Ch'uan and Chou Yen-ju)-- that by the end of his life he had won, by sheer perseverance, an appointment as Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent, with a rank of 1b, and an imperial patent awarding his title to three generations of his forebears.

This biography--which begins with Tung's family connections and early training, and traces the interaction between his career as an official and his evolution as the artistic arbiter of his day--relies extensively on new evidence from the Ming shih-lu (The Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty) and the Kuo-ch'ueh (An Evaluation of (Events in our) Dynasty) by T'an Ch'ien (1594-1657), key sources previously untapped by art historians. Together they permit the reconstruction of Tung's official career more precisely than was possible before, with a view towards dating more accurately those of his works with office seals. By due emphasis on his political ambition and by identifying works he executed for political friends and acquaintances, I have attempted to illuminate the hidden springs of Tung's character.