He was a leading authority on the oracle bone and turtle shell inscriptions of the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC).

Dong was a professor at National Taiwan University and director of the Institute of History and Philology [zh] at Academia Sinica from 1950 to 1954.

[1] Dong was born 20 March 1895 to a shopkeeper's family in Nanyang in southern Henan Province.

[1][2] He visited Anyang in the summer of 1928 and found that villagers were still digging up oracle bones and shells and selling them, as they had been since around 1895.

Although many scholars assumed that thirty years of looting had already removed all valuable items, Dong's visit led him to suggest an archaeological dig.

[1] Dong accepted an invitation to lecture on oracle bone inscriptions in the United States in January 1947.

[1] His research also led to a chronological identification of the twelve kings who ruled Anyang for 273 years beginning 14 January 1384 BC.