Xing Tong is one of the four great calligraphers of the late Ming Dynasty. His contemporaries appreciated his calligraphy so much that they equated him with Dong Qichang (1555–1635). After a short civil service career, he retired to his hometown Linyi, where he devoted himself entirely to calligraphy, poetry and painting. The refined culture of the literati was at its peak at that time, and Xing Tong became the center of a circle of poets.
Xing Tong's calligraphy is entirely in the classical tradition of the main master of Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi (303–361). The characters are elegant and fluid, executed with a vertically applied, 'round' brush, whereby the artist repeatedly sets strong accents in order to then create a dynamic rhythm in the typeface with quickly executed, drier brushstrokes.