This article re-examines Dong Qichang’s assessment of the professional painter Qiu Ying and the state of blue-green (qinglü) mountain and water painting on the late Ming art market. Because Dong’s theory of the Northern and Southern schools exalted literati ink painting, scholarship has tended to dismiss “Northern” blue-green painting, and modern views of Qiu Ying remain shaped by Dong’s criticism. Reading Dong’s inscriptions and notes closely, the author shows that his judgement was not wholly negative: he praised Qiu Ying’s “exquisite workmanship” as the finest of his age, even above Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, while elsewhere criticising the same meticulousness as laborious craft that cannot be learned. Comparing authentic works such as Garden for Solitary Enjoyment and Spring Dawn in the Han Palace, and paintings showing Wen Zhengming’s influence, with the “Suzhou fakes” bearing Qiu Ying’s name, notably the Jiucheng Palace scroll, the article argues that mass-produced, stiff and over-technical forgeries dominated the market. Dong’s criticism thus matched the real character of late Ming professional painting, and the mixing of forgeries with authentic works fostered literati disdain for professional painters.