Some people commented on Xu Wei:
A life of ups and downs, the second brother died early
Married three times, help around
Five cars learn to be rich, and six relatives are scattered
Seven years of unjust imprisonment, eight tests are not sold
Nine times suicide, it is a sigh!
Forty words to complete Xu Wei's life.
Xu wei
Xu Wei, who is bitter and lonely, tells us that there is no end to the suffering in the world, and it is extremely bitter to go to the bitter place.
On the fourth day of February in the sixteenth year of Zhengde, a family of officials and eunuchs in Shanyin (present-day Shaoxing), Zhejiang, a baby boy fell to the ground, this boy was Xu Wei, and at this time his father Xu Yan was already an old man in his twilight years.
In his old age, Xu Yan was very happy about the birth of his son, but he did not have time to enjoy this joy, and after a hundred days, he died and died.
Xu Wei's mother was a concubine of his father In his later years, and in this kind of official eunuch family, her status was naturally not high, and from the moment Xu Wei was born, he was raised by his mother-in-law Miao.
Without the love and care of his father and his biological mother, his mother-in-law instinctively has a lot less love and care for him, so that the young Xu Wei lacks a lot of warmth from the family, and the young Xu Wei cannot feel the love of his relatives.
In the same year that he was ten years old, his biological mother was expelled from the family by the Miao clan and suffered from the separation of flesh and bones. Living in the low status of the family, Xu Wei deeply felt the pain of sending people under the fence, and the misfortune of the family at a young age brought him the most trauma to his heart.
At the age of fourteen, Miao died, and he had to be raised by his half-brother Xu Huai, who was more than thirty years older than himself, and due to the huge difference in age, the two had no sincere brotherhood and the relationship was not very harmonious.
The incompleteness of the family affection in his youth caused Xu Wei's personality to be suspicious and extreme, stubborn and amorous, and his sensitive heart was full of indignation. However, he was exceptionally intelligent, quick-witted, and talented.
When he was nine years old, he was able to write articles on lifting his son, and when he was ten years old, he imitated Yang Xiong's "Xie Tao" and wrote "Release and Destruction", which was a sensation in the city and became famous all over the city. Unfortunately, the article "Release" has not been handed down, and it is difficult for us to know what kind of mood the young Xu Wei expressed.
After becoming an adult, Xu Wei's heart became more and more depressed, often sitting up in the middle of the night and whistling, venting the bitterness in his heart, and the poems he made were mostly to confide in his heart, directly expressing his chest and arrogance, and there was a sense of uninhibitedness that was vast and transcendent, which may have a great relationship with his young experience.
In the year when he was twenty years old, Xu Wei, who was in full bloom, won the Xiucai examination, this time the scenery was unlimited, the future was bright, just the next year he ushered in another great joy of his life, into the Rich Family Pan family in Shaoxing, and soon after becoming a relative, he accompanied his father-in-law to the eunuch You Yangjiang (now part of Guangdong), helped his father-in-law handle some official affairs, and thus began his career in the official field.
Soon after, the township examination approached, he had to return to Shanyin to prepare for the exam, on the occasion of traveling back and forth between Zhejiang and Guangdong, he simply toured this great river and mountain, ascended to the Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang, admired the green scenery of the Ganjiang River, and later visited the Guanyin Cave in Meiling, and this period of tour gave him a lot of open-mindedness and optimism that was suppressed in his heart, as if he had changed a person, full of expectations for his future.
A group of scribes who admired Xu Wei's talent formed a literary society with each other, sang and wrote poems to each other, drank for pleasure, commented on ancient and modern times, and indulged in landscapes, during this period Xu Wei's literary level and artistic accomplishment were rapidly improved, and this period became a beautiful period of leisure that Xu Wei no longer had in his life, and became the memory of his life.
Young and talented, Miss Pan family of Xu Wei is a gentle and considerate woman, it is this kind and virtuous wife who gives Xu Wei countless soul comfort, young and pure talented women, looking forward to a better future, husband and wife respect each other, immersed in love, adding countless joys of life, but unfortunately this beautiful life is not very long.
Soon after, Xu Wei participated in the township examination, just like most readers, the confident Xu Wei had to accept the blow of the famous Sun Shan, and did not pass the two township examinations, for the readers who are keen on the name of the name, this blow is undoubtedly heavy, but Xu Wei's blow is not over.
At the age of twenty-five, the Xu family's family property was occupied by the gentry and bullies, and the property and home that used to survive were destroyed overnight; a year later, the nineteen-year-old wife Pan Shi died of illness, which was undoubtedly another heavy blow.
Many years later, Xu Wei recalled the scene at that time:
Cover the double sideburns embroidered fan new, when they met each youth.
The people whispered and listened, and the Tao was a member of the Immortal Society.
Wrote a mourning poem for his wife:
Tsui Hokari was hanging on the ground, and it was sad to talk about the old things.
Poor only has a makeup mirror, once looked at Zhu Yan and thrush.
The makeup mirror of his wife's thrush grooming still exists, but the beloved is no longer there, and the past is sad.
Xu Wei, who suffered one fate after another, did not know how to survive for a while, and in order to make a living, he had to leave his hometown and run around. In the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing, the twenty-eight-year-old Xu Wei opened a private school to teach for a living, and during this period of teaching, Xu Wei began to study Wang Yangming's teachings, and he was deeply influenced by Wang Yangming's teachings, and he believed that "all people who benefit from others are saints." Therefore, his thoughts became more and more unrestrained, contemptuous of the views of traditional Confucianism, the pursuit of a free and unrestrained spiritual world, and his personality became bold and open-minded, uninhibited by worldly constraints, but instead comprehended the nature of the mind and the pleasure of being human from Taoist and Zen thought.
In the next three years, he participated in eight township examinations, all of which failed, and he was disheartened and took a township examination in Jiajing thirty-one years, this time he finally waited for the opportunity, and was favored by Xue Yingxu, deputy envoy of Zhejiang Tixue, and was promoted to the first, and was added to the county school of food students, but did not win the re-examination.
Xu Wei, who had an arrogant personality, did not understand that his arrogant and arbitrary articles were difficult to be recognized and adopted by the emperor, so he suffered countless blows, and after one blow after another, he began to become a little indifferent.
Xu Wei, who has tried many times, may understand that he has no connection with the imperial examination, and after the age of thirty, Xu Wei has less of the mind to pursue fame and fame, and began to study calligraphy and painting, which has since opened another scenery in life.
In the world of poetry and painting, Xu Wei showed extraordinary superb skills, in painting, he landscapes, figures, flowers, birds and beasts are omnipotent, the works often pour out their inner excitement and bitterness, showing their inner unrestrained pride between pen and ink, his writing is full of wild and wild temperament, the lines are rough and strong, breaking the loneliness of the Ming Dynasty book world dominated by the "Tai Ge body". He himself once praised himself: my book is first, poetry is second, literature is second, and painting is secondary. His calligraphy is mostly made of wild grass, which is difficult to identify, but it pushes ming calligraphy to a peak.
During this time, he did not indulge in poetry, painting and writing with peace of mind, and although he suffered many blows from the famous Sun Mountain, he still did not extinguish his ambition to serve the country. In the thirty-third year of Jiajing, Xu Wei, who usually liked to study the art of war, was full of blood, and he risked his life to come to the front line to participate in the campaign against the Wukou, offer advice, and show military ability beyond imagination, and this young man's actions attracted the attention of Hu Zongxian.
After participating in the battle, he began his own idle life, during this period, he came to Fujian from Zhejiang, and finally came to Shunchang, Fujian province, and began to study the southern drama script, making great contributions to the study and exploration of southern drama, and laying a solid foundation for his future opera creation.
In the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing, when the scourge of the Wokou was intensifying, the imperial court appointed Hu Zongxian as the left attendant of the military department and the left governor of the capital chayuan, and added the governor of Zhejiang to take over the military affairs of the Zhejiang and Fujian regions.
Hu Zongxian, who had great ambitions, began to recruit talents to enrich his shogunate, and finally in the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing, he recruited the prestigious Xu Wei into the government after many invitations to serve as a staff member.
Xu Wei made many suggestions and suggestions in Hu Zongxian's pacification of the Wukou Rebellion, winning Hu Zongxian's trust, but because he was a bohemian and unruly person, he often ganged up in the military camp to drink heavily, drunkenly sang, Hu Zongxian did not punish him, but was generous to him, repeatedly gave silver two, purchased real estate, and with the help of Hu Zongxian, Xu Wei married another wife.
Once, Hu Zongxian got a white deer, intending to dedicate it to the imperial court, ordering Xu Wei to draft a recital chapter, and sending the other disciples to the friendly bachelors, choosing excellent shangxiang. The scholar played Xu Wei's proposed chapter to the emperor, and Sejong was very happy and loved Hu Zongxian even more, so Hu Zongxian valued Xu Wei even more.
Xu Wenchang often drank with friends in the city, and when the Governor's Palace was in an emergency, he could not find him, so he waited with the gate open late at night. Some people reported that Xu Xiucai was drunk and shouting, but Hu Zongxian praised him instead. At that time, Hu Zongxian was so powerful that the wen and military generals did not dare to look up when they saw it, while Xu Wenchang, wearing a worn-out black turban and a white cloth coat, went straight to the door and talked about the affairs of the world, if there was no one around.
In the forty-first year of Jiajing, the anti-Wu struggle presided over by Hu Zongxian achieved unprecedented victories, the Rebellion of the Wokou in Zhejiang was quelled, and Hu Zongxian, who had achieved fame and fame, embarked on the peak of his life, but in May of that year, Hu Zongxian's patron Yan Song fell.
Hu Zongxian, who was a member of the Yan Party, was attacked by his political enemies, hu Zongxian's shogunate was forced to disband, and Xu Wei returned to his hometown again.
Hu Zongxian, under the heavy attack of his political enemies, finally committed suicide in November of 1944 in Jiajing, after writing the poem "The sword is buried in the wrongful prison, and the loyal soul surrounds the white clouds".
Xu Wei, as An aide to Hu Zongxian, watched his former colleagues deeply involved one by one, on the one hand, he was worried that the articles he had written for Hu Zongxian to praise Yan Song would be liquidated, on the other hand, he was deeply saddened by Hu Zongxian's death, and he was in a long period of resentment and sadness.
The extremism of his personality and the perennial mental pressure caused him to become insane in fear and sorrow, so that he went mad. After writing an indignant epitaph for himself, he prepared to commit suicide. In his madness, he pulled down the nails on the wall and pierced them into his ears, and the blood gushed out, but it was not life-threatening, and he was healed after several months of healing. Xu Wei, who attempted suicide, still did not get a full recovery in spirit, he used an iron vertebra to hammer his kidneys, and did not succeed in suicide, so repeated suicide nine times, in the end there was no suicide success, but the mental problems became more and more serious.
In the forty-fifth year of Jiajing, Xu Wei fell ill again, and in his madness, he actually suspected that his wife Zhang Shi had committed adultery with a monk and killed her, so Xu Wei was arrested and imprisoned, and began a seven-year prison life.
In prison, he was shackled, covered with lice, and in the winter the snow covered his bedside, shivering with cold, and all the clothes sent by his friends were robbed. Xu Wei, who was in prison, was rescued by Zhu Dashou, a waiter in the Zhijiao Ceremonial Department, and Zhang Yuanchen, the editor of Hanlin, and finally saved his life, and finally in the first year of the Wanli Calendar, riding on the great joy of the Wanli Emperor's ascension to the throne, he was able to get rid of the disaster of imprisonment, and Xu Wei was already fifty-three years old when he was released from prison.
After his release from prison, Xu Wei had no way to make a living, had to sell calligraphy, paintings and poems to survive, fell into the rivers and lakes, was humiliated by his name, had no hope for his future, the cold and warm of the world, and the bitterness of life made him even more debauched, pouring sorrow with wine, and sometimes drinking all night to vent his sorrows.
In his later years, his behavior was even more eccentric, as Yuan Hongdao's "Long Biography of Xu Wen" records:
In his later years, he was deeply indignant and pretended to be crazy. When the eminent person goes to the door, he refuses to accept it. When the Taoist official arrives, he will not get a word. When to take the money to the liquor store, call down and drink.
He had no family property in his life, his money was scattered at will, he lived by selling calligraphy and paintings, and he refused to do it again when he had a little money. In his later years, Xu Wei suffered from a variety of diseases, and he could not often do painting, and his life was even poorer. He wrote the "Inscription Ink Grape Poem", which explained the hardships of his later years:
Half a life has become a man, and the independent study is roaring in the evening wind.
The pearl at the bottom of the pen has nowhere to sell, and it is idle and thrown in the wild vine
He wrote poems such as "Selling Mink", "Selling Chimes", "Selling Books", and "Selling Paintings", and the desolation of his later life can be seen from them. Among them, the poem "Selling Paintings" reads:
A bunch of Danqing half-poems, slightly like the official An Shi. The depressed guest house plays chess and wanders into the world for memories.
Everywhere Feng will be pro-counterfeiting, dumping boxes to abandon the co-beefish hunger. Lying on the edge of the wandering is worrying, and the wall gap is too windy.
In the twenty-first year of the Wanli Calendar, Xu Wei, who was in poverty and destitution, completed his lonely life in the midst of poverty and illness, and died at the age of seventy-three.
Ming Shi commented on Xu Wei:
Wei genius is super yi, and the poetry is outstanding. Good cursive writing, work writing flowers and grass bamboo stone.
Xu Wei is talented, but he is not suitable for finding his own position, he pursues the liberation of personality, but he encounters setbacks and blows again and again, only from poetry and painting to release his true disposition, the pursuit of personal dignity, reveal his inner world.