Mr. Lin Tsung-i (style name Chih-ch'ao) was born on 22 April 1923 in Taipei, during the period in which Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule. He passed away on 3 April 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. Lin Tsung-i was born into the "Lin Pen-yüan" clan of Banciao, one of the most prestigious in Taiwan at the time. Brought up in an atmosphere steeped in learning, he went on to graduate from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Taiwan University. Later, he traveled abroad and studied English literature at the Graduate School of Tokyo University. Not only was he versed in Chinese, English, and Japanese literature, he also developed a passion for the arts and became a renowned collector of refined works of painting and calligraphy. Although Lin Tsung-i lived in Japan for many years, his heart was still closely related to his Taiwan homeland. On works of painting and calligraphy, he impressed such seals as "Ting-ching t'ang (Hall of Calm)", "Chi-ku shu-wu (Studio Drawing from Antiquity)", and "Lai-ch'ing ko (Pavilion of Greeting Blue-green [Hills])", names referring to halls and studios at the ancestral home of the Lin clan. Well before he passed away, he was also willing to part with many treasures in his art collection and share them with society, becoming one of the greatest benefactors to date of the collection of painting and calligraphy at the National Palace Museum. His son, Mr. Lin Ch'eng-tao, a graduate of Columbia University in the US, fully supported and followed in his father’s generous footsteps, making even further contributions of artworks to the Museum. The endeavors in the arts and generosity of this father-and-son team have earned them respect in artistic circles and all corners of society as well.

One of the oldest and most famous artworks donated to the National Palace Museum by Lin Tsung-i is "Commentary to The Book of Changes" by the great Sung Neo-Confucian scholar Chu Hsi (1130-1200), a piece of calligraphy that had originally been in the former Ch'ing court collection, which makes up the bulk of the Museum holdings. This renowned artwork has been chosen for loan exhibitions from the Museum to both the US and Germany. Among the other works are those by several famous artists of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties as well as modern masterpieces featuring traditional Chinese as well as aspects of Japanese and Western art. The participation of Lin's clan in the arts had a deep and lasting influence on its development in Taiwan, as represented by these important works of painting and calligraphy included among the Lin donations that now immensely enrich the Museum collection of this period.