Background
Xu Wei was born in 1521 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. Xu was raised by a single mother who died when he was 14. He was an extremely bright boy who learned to read at six and began to write prose when he was only nine.
Xu Wei was born in 1521 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. Xu was raised by a single mother who died when he was 14. He was an extremely bright boy who learned to read at six and began to write prose when he was only nine.
Though Xu passed the county civil examination at the age of 20, he was never able to pass the provincial civil service examinations, even after attempting it eight times.
Xu wasn’t very successful in his life and career. Eventually, he was employed by Hu Zongxian, governor of Zhejiang, as his aide and joined the war against Japanese pirates, who frequently invaded China’s east and southeast coastal areas. However, Governor Hu was later deposed and put behind bars after he was framed by his political enemies. Distraught that he could be entangled in the case, Xu tried to kill himself nine times. He once used an ax to cut his skull, and later he punched iron nails into his ears. He became so paranoid that he killed his second wife in a fierce rage, believing her to be involved in an extramarital affair.
Xu was jailed for seven years before he was freed with the help of an influential friend. He then spent the rest of his life painting and writing. He lived from hand to mouth by selling his artworks and articles. His unhappy life experience, mental problems, and repeated career failures greatly influenced his painting, which were his main outlet to express his resentment and despair. Xu’s work entitled “Grapes” has not only been widely acclaimed as a great xieyi masterpiece but also as one of his most representative creations. In the poem he penned on the painting, Xu laments that half of his life’s endeavors failed to earn him any recognition and his works have been ignored just like unappealing wild grapes hanging in the shadows of tangled vines. He died at the age of 73 in abject poverty. Today, his artworks are eagerly sought by Chinese art lovers.
Quotations: “Calligraphy is my best, and it’s followed by my poems, prose and paintings.”
Xu had a reputation of a drunkard and a madman. It is possible that Xu Wei suffered from Bipolar Disorder, a condition actually recognized in China at this time.
At the age of 21, Xu married a woman surnamed Pan, who died five years later. Then he was married for the second time but his mental imbalance led to his killing of his wife Zhang-shi after becoming paranoid that she was having an affair.