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Cheng Zhengkui [Ch’eng Cheng-k’uei; hao Juling, Qingxi Laoren]
(b Xiaogan, Hubei Province, 1604; d Hubei Province, 1676). Chinese painter and scholar-official. Cheng took the civil-service examinations to become a juren at the age of 21 and a jinshi seven years later. In 1631 he accepted an official position at the Ming court (1368–1644) in Beijing. While there he met Dong Qichang, the distinguished theorist and scholar, who is said to have tutored him in calligraphy and painting. A few years later, when Cheng resigned his post and tried to return to Hubei, he was seized by rebels but subsequently released. In 1642 he was called back to the capital to serve as Keeper of the Imperial Seals. Two years later he left Beijing to take a post in Nanjing but was again captured by rebel troops and briefly joined them. He eventually escaped and accompanied other Ming officials to Nanjing in support of the Prince of Fu. When Manchu forces took Nanjing in 1645, Cheng surrendered and joined the new government under the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). He rose to the position of Vice-president of the Board of Works but in 1657 was dismissed for a minor offence and returned to Hubei. In his last years Cheng studied Buddhism and Daoism.
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