Dong Qichang (1555-1636) wrote Nineteen Old Poems several times throughout his life, the recipients of two of which have been determined as Dong Qichang's friends Fang Jikang (1579-?) of Xin'an and Xu  Weixin (1551-1628) of Shandong. Another version was in the collection of the Bai family in Nanhe, Hebei.Among them, the work presented to Fang Jikang as a gift is still extant and in the form of an album; it was once in the possession of Di Xuegeng (1820-1899) and Di Baoxian (1872-1941). A copy of this album on silk in handscroll format now in the Shanghai Museum collection was made by Song Jue (1576-1632); it had been passed down in the Ge family collection of Pinghu for three generations and included in Ge Jinlang’s (1837-1890) Airi yinlu shuhua lu and Ge Sitong’s (1867-1935) Airi yinlu shuhua bulu. There are a forged colophon and seals of Zhou Lianggong (1612-1672) on the Shanghai Museum handscroll. Although fake, the information therein is of important value for reference. The date of the Shanghai Museum copy follows that mentioned in Cheng Jiasui’s (1565-1643) Songyuan langtao ji and probably can be limited to around the jiayin year (1614).

The National Palace Museum also has a handscroll version of Dong Qichang’s Nineteen Old Poems. This work was done on Jinsushan sutra paper and had once been severely cut apart, so much that some parts of it had even been separated into individual characters. Later, it was remounted twice, the first time involving the scattered pieces of the original handscroll remounted as ten album leaves. However, many pieces of paper were misplaced, making for an odd layout and uneven line spacing. The second remounting remounted the album leaves back into a handscroll. The general appearance of the National Palace Museum version before it was cut into pieces can be seen in A Sequel of the Model Calligraphy of the Hall of Shuzhong (Shuzhongtangxutie) traced and engraved by Dong Hao (fl. ca. late 16 th -17 th c.), a grandnephew of Dong Qichang. However, when Shuzhongtang xutie was engraved in stone, the yimao (1615) colophon on the National Palace Museum version was not included and instead the jiayin (1614) colophon from another version of Nineteen Old Poems substituted in its place.

The National Palace Museum also has two other works by Dong Qichang (Motto of Cui Yuan and Poetry of Li Bai Poetry in album format) which had also been cut into pieces and remounted. The previously mentioned Nineteen Old Poems and Poetry of Li Bai were once considered by the compilers of the Qing imperial catalogue Shiqu baoji xubian to be recorded in it but later removed, only to be finally included later in Shiqu baoji sanbian . The method of cutting up these three works now in the National Palace Museum collection is similar and probably done so as part of the activities related to collecting characters for copying by the Kangxi emperor (1654-1722, r. 1661-1722), and they may have been remounted in the Kangxi reign as well. The three works thus reveal much evidence of the training in calligraphy and life of the Kangxi emperor.