Geniuses generally have tempers, and geniuses and madmen are often only a line apart. Many gifted people have many quirks of one kind or another, but this does not prevent them from becoming otherworldly geniuses. In a way, if they stick to the rules, maybe they're not geniuses. But such geniuses often end badly, even rather poignantly. Today's protagonist Xu Wei is such an extremely personal and extremely legendary genius.
Xu wei
The name "Xu Wenchang" is also well known to more people. Xu Wei was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and his father had been a tongzhi of Kuizhou (夔州, in present-day Chongqing), and was born relatively wealthy. But Xu Wei did not enjoy much of the warmth of the family: he was born in the side room and was always raised by his mother-in-law who had no sons; and his father died shortly after his birth, and he became an orphan at a young age. When he was ten years old, Xu Wei's biological mother was thrown out of the house by his fierce mother-in-law; at the age of fourteen, his mother-in-law also died, and xu Wei has lived with his eldest brother, who is more than thirty years older than himself. The eldest brother who was old enough to be his father was not born to the same mother as himself, let alone a little brotherhood, and he was raised purely because he shared a father with himself.
Xu Wei, who grew up in such a family environment, naturally can't talk about how much family warmth. But this did not prevent Xu Wei from showing his extraordinary talent. At the age of ten, Xu Wei imitated the prose of a famous Writer of the Han Dynasty, "Xie Tao", and wrote "Shi Ruin", which became famous and compared him to a prodigy of the previous dynasty. But this genius also has a little quirk, that is, he likes to hold his knees and scream at night (a bit like Zhuge Liang before he goes out of the mountain), but when he whistles, Xu Wei's eyes often have tears, which are full of resentment of his fate and confused tears of his future.
Although the eldest brother did not like this little brother very much, he was still conscientious. When Xu Wei was twenty-one years old, he entered the Pan family of a famous local rich family, and the old man valued this talented son-in-law very much, and took him with him to Guangdong to take office, along the way, Weng and his son-in-law toured the famous mountains and rivers of the motherland, and Xu Wei also assisted his father-in-law in handling some official documents, and initially showed his administrative ability. On the way between Zhejiang and Guangdong, Xu Wei also participated in the Wenqing small group of "Ten Sons of Yuezhong", and the friends of the ten sons of Yuezhong recognized Xu Wei's talent very much, calling him the first talent of Yuezhong.
It's just that although this great talent is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, he is not very proficient in the "right way" of the Qi family to govern the country. Xu Wei was only admitted to Xiucai at the age of twenty, and then he participated in eight consecutive township examinations and failed to make all the rankings, and he did not even mix with anyone in his forties. Not only was he repeatedly defeated in the examination room, but Xu Wei, who was bold but not good at management, failed to keep the family business after the death of his brother, and at the age of twenty-five, he was occupied by bullies in the family's good field and beautiful house, and his wife Pan Shi also fell ill and died a year later.
The continuous blows made Xu Wei more debauched, if the previous exam was his lack of preparation, the next exam was that he simply did not intend to take the exam well. Failing the exam - resenting the society - answering the questions indiscriminately - continuing to fail the exam, Xu Wei's road to the examination is almost to follow this dead cycle all the way.
Although Xu Wei is promiscuous, he is definitely not an anti-social person. On the contrary, he also took his birth mother, who had been expelled from the house by his mother-in-law, back home to live, which was not allowed by the etiquette of the society at that time. In addition, Xu Wei was also very concerned about national affairs, whether it was the Mongol Iron Horse once again besieging the capital, or the Wukou invading Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Xu Wei paid close attention to the development of the situation, and wrote many literary works to reflect his patriotism.
Since the ancient Shaoxing master, Xu Wei, as a Shaoxing person, was born with excellent genes as a staff officer. His talents were also noticed by Hu Zongxian, the largest real power faction in the southeast at that time. Xu Wei, who liked to learn from Zhuge Liang to hold his knees and whistle, also looked up to Mr. Kong Ming in the aspect of going out of the mountain, and let Hu Zongxian invite himself three times to work for him. In Hu Zongxian's shogunate, Xu Wei became the most eye-catching person: Xu Wei drank too much wine, Hu Zongxian had to wait for the master to return; when a military conference was held, Xu Wei was always the last to arrive, and he also came in a casual outfit.
Stills from "Master Shaoxing"
Hu Zongxian's requirements for discipline and etiquette are very strict, and only Xu Wei can be so arrogant around him. The reason why Xu Wei is so indulgent is purely because Xu Wei's talent is indeed too high. Emperor Sejong liked Xiangrui and also liked the people below to pat himself on the back, and it just so happened that Hu Zongxian got a white deer, so he asked Xu Wei and other masters to write a "White Deer Table" and then show it to a scholar with good literary skills. When the scholar saw Xu Wei's article, he felt very good and thought that he should dedicate it to the emperor. Sejong was very happy to accept the white deer, and seeing the brilliant "Entering the White Deer Table" was even more pampered by Hu Zongxian. An article made Hu Zongxian more favored, and Hu Zongxian naturally attached great importance to Xu Wei, and naturally turned a blind eye to his small section.
Hu Zongxian
Of course, if Xu Wei was just a good master of horse-ass articles, Hu Zongxian would not value him too much, and at most he would only invite him out and use him when he needed to wear a top hat for Emperor Sejong. The reason why Xu Wei is particularly valued by Hu Zongxian is not only because of his writing, but also because of his strategic vision.
At this time, the southeast coast had fallen into the quagmire of the Anti-Japanese War. Like a skin disease, the Wokou began as a disturbance or two, gradually began to breed and spread, and gradually Chinese joined, and its nature has gradually developed from small fights and money grabbing to the extent of attacking the city and confronting the government. A group of Wokou landed in Zhejiang, and they actually fought and killed all the way to the Ming Dynasty's capital Nanjing, only to be suppressed.
Wokou
Hu Zongxian, who was overwhelmed by the Wokou, was like beating a gopher, knocking out a nest and popping up again, and more and more. After fully understanding the situation, Xu Wei put forward the eight-character policy of "first setting the overall situation, planning and then moving", holding that although there are many Wokou, most of them have the shadows of Wang Zhi and several other Chinese behind them, and it is these talents who stir up the entire southeast chicken flying dog jump. The gains and losses confined to one city and one pool, and the elimination of the bandits, will not have much impact on the overall situation, and only by killing these bandits can the Wokou be pacified.
Hu Zongxian, who was deeply impressed, quickly made it his main guideline for eliminating the Wokou. Under the guidance of this guiding ideology, Hu Zongxian was able to use both grace and power, and each one broke down, and under the design of him and Xu Wei, Wang Zhi and other sea thieves fell to the ground. At the same time, under the leadership of a generation of famous generals Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayu, the Ming army also continued to win victories on the battlefield. Shortly after the death of Emperor Sejong, the Wu rebellion in the southeast was finally calmed down, and Chinese people defeated the Wu Kou.
Statue of Qi Jiguang
As commanders-in-chief and chiefs of the general staff of the war against the Wu Dynasty, the merits of Hu Zongxian and Xu Wei cannot be erased. Why is it that when the whole country celebrates the final pacification of the Wokou, there are no such two people on the list of awards?
It turned out that in order to get the support of the imperial court for his anti-Wu cause, Hu Zongxian not only kept xiangrui for the emperor, but also attached himself to Yan Song for a long time, plus his life was not proper, his hands were not clean, and he also fell after the fall of Yan Song, and soon after committed suicide in prison.
And Xu Wei, as Hu Zongxian's confidant, helped Xu Wei do many unsightly things that only he knew. Xu Wei, who was originally extremely sensitive and fragile in psychology, life gave him countless blows, coupled with his long-term addiction to alcohol, which made his sanity finally have problems. In order not to let himself be caught in prison, Xu Wei also began to self-harm: he pierced his ear with an awl, and smashed his scrotum with a hammer (this is not really crazy and basically can't do it).
However, what is more embarrassing is that Xu Wei tossed himself so much that he still went to jail. Not because he was implicated by Hu Zongxian, but because he was sending (pretending?). When he was crazy, he accidentally killed his wife. The cell is a very suitable place for research, and here Xu Wei began to study "Zhou Yi" again and made great achievements. And Xu Wei also has a group of good friends, and finally Xu Wei was released from prison before serving his sentence.
After his release from prison, Hu Zongxian began his wandering old age, leaving his footprints all over the motherland. Soon after, his friend invited him to the northern region, and Xu Wei gladly went there. In the north, he met his old friend Qi Jiguang, who fought alongside him, and was recommended by Qi Jiguang to go to the home of Li Chengliang, the general of Liaodong, to be a teacher.
At the Li family, Xu Wei accomplished the last great thing of his life: he passed on what he had learned all his life to several sons of the Li family, and combined his practical combat experience with Qi Jiguang's famous book "Ji Xiao Xinshu" to systematically introduce students how to become a good general, especially how to fight the Japanese. Li Rusong, the grand duke of the Li family, carefully studied what Teacher Xu had taught, and defeated the Japanese army decades later in the Renchen Rebellion, proving Xu Wei's greatness with practical experience.
Li Rusong
After teaching all his anti-Wu experience to the students, Xu Wei refused the li family's generous retention, left the north, and continued to travel in all directions. During this period, other friends invited him to be a staff member, but Xu Wei couldn't stand the red tape of those people, and even said, "I am sentenced to death, that is, I am stabbed, but if you want me to chop me into meat paste", he did not take long to leave.
Xu Wei's calligraphy and paintings
Xu Wei's life was a wandering skeleton and did not like to be bound. Behind his seemingly happy figure is actually endless heartache, as a person who has never enjoyed the joy of heaven, life has continuously hit him with various blows. Perhaps the time he missed most was the years in hu zongxian's shogunate, when the days were unrestrained, there was wine and meat, but he could point out the country and the mountains, and strategize. I don't know if Xu Wei, at the last moment of his life, will float up in front of his eyes the picture of him sitting together with Hu Zongxian and Qi Jiguang to save the people from water and fire?