In Search of Footsteps of Xu Wei

On the morning of October 25, 2010, I went all the way in a drizzle to visit “Green Vine House” in Number 10 Dacheng Lane in Shaoxing, a city of history and culture about 60 kilometers southeast of Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province. My purpose was to retrace the footsteps of Xu Wei (1521-1593), an all-round all-time literary and art talent rarely seen in the history of China.

Xu Wei was born in the house and grew up here. The large garden house influenced the young boy. After he became adult, he called himself “The Mountain-man of Heavenly Pond” and “The Resident of the Green Vine House”. The heavenly pond refers to a small pond in the courtyard. Born a prodigy, Xu Wei undertook his studies of Chinese classics and arts here. By his teenage years, he has already been an established composer, poet, essayist, calligrapher and painter.

The genitor’s house doubled as a bookshop. I purchased some books on the scholar, including two biographies and a collection of his poetry and essays and an album of his paintings. Back in Hangzhou, I went through these books and gained a better understanding of the man of extraordinary talent.

Life of Tragedy

Xu Wei’s life was full of misfortunes. He was born into a rich family with a lot of his ancestors enjoying longevity, but his father passed away due to a serious disease when the baby was merely 100 days old. When the junior was ten years old, his birth mother (previously working as a maid) was forced to leave and she died four years later. His two elder brothers died young too. After his eldest brother died, the house and other properties went to someone else. Without much property in his name, Xu Wei was married into another family at 20 but his young wife died at 19. His son by the wife grew up to be a rascal.

Though Xu Wei was a genius of arts and classics, he oddly flunked the imperial examinations eight times. In the sixth time, he came out the second in the preliminary round in the region but flunked again in the provincial exam held in Hangzhou. The last time he failed again even though Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang Province, had pulled strings in advance to make sure he would pass.

During all these years of academic failure, Xu Wei became famed as one of the “Ten Scholars of Zhejiang”. His friends passed imperial examinations and became honored scholars. It is not hard to imagine how pained he felt about his destiny of failures.

In 1558, the 38-year-old Xu Wei was engaged as an advisor to Hu Zongxian (1512-1565) in military campaigns against Japanese pirates who had been harassing and marauding coastal regions of China for about four centuries. Hu appreciated Xu Wei’s literary talent. Xu Wei was put in charge of preparing reports and other documents that were subjected to Emperor Jiajing. One special report penned by Xu Wei was highly appreciated by the emperor for its literary grandeur. At that time, other officials working under Hu Zongxian were all jitters and followed rituals strictly when they came to see their boss. But Xu Wei came and went dressed in casual cloths.

Hu Zongxian was plunged into prison in 1565 due to the downfall of two supportive ministers in court infighting. The supreme commander of coastal defense against Japanese pirates committed suicide in prison. The 45-year-old Xu Wei went mentally distraught and tried to kill himself. He used an axe to chop his skull in one failed suicide. In another failed attempt, he drilled through his ears with three-inch long nails. None of his nine suicidal attempts was successful. Then he killed his second wife after he thought she had had an affair. Xu Wei spent seven years in prison until his friend Zhang Yuanbian from the Hanlin Imperial Academy managed to get him freed at the age of 53. He spent the rest of his life painting, but with little financial success. His last years went down in poverty. The scholar had to sell some properties for a living. He lived with his youngest son and passed away at 73.

Legacy

Xu Wei’s masterpieces were widely recognized posthumously. His essays pointed out a new direction whereas most of his contemporaries contented themselves with copying and imitating ancient stereotypes. Xu is now considered a pioneering essayist who moved ahead of his time in his essay writing.

Xu is celebrated for the 474 poems he left behind. They cover a broad range of subjects from heroes, beauties to hard times. Many of them are inscriptions on paintings.

Xu Wei’s calligraphy reflects the best of the greatest calligraphers in the history of Chinese culture, indicating the scholar’s genius and innovative studies. His handwritings are regarded as the best in the late period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and a milestone in the history of Chinese calligraphy.

Xu Wei, now considered a preeminent dramatist, authored four plays. Some scholars believe they were the best plays of the Ming Dynasty.

Xu Wei is also considered the founding artist of modern painting. He was the first ever artist in the history of China that painted in an extremely free-hand impressionist style. The innovative artist graded his artistic achievement in this order: calligraphy, poetry, essay, and painting, but he is most remembered for his painting. He was well ahead of his time. His original explorations into the artistic unknowns have inspired numerous artists since his death.

Rediscovery and Influence

Four years after the demise of Xu Wei, Yuan Hongdao (1568-1610), an influential scholar from the north, happened to read a collection of Xu Wei’s poems in the library of Tao wangling in Shaoxing. Astonished by the beauty of the poems, he asked Tao who the poet was. Then Yuan learned about Xu’s life and works. Yuan remembered reading Xu’s plays and admiring his paintings before but he had mistaken the man’s identity because of the few pen names Xu Wei used. That night, Yuan and Tao went through Xu’s poems in great excitement. Their weighty exclamations woke the houseboys. The two scholars later respectively wrote a biography of Xu Wei.

Bada Sanren (1626-1705) and Shi Tao (1641-c1704), both extremely influential landmark artists of the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), admired Xu Wei’s revolutionary painting style. Zheng Xie (1693-1765), one of the Eight Eccentric Painters of Yangzhou in the middle period of the Qing Dynasty, humbly and referentially referred to himself as a disciple of Xu Wei. In modern times, Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957), two of the greatest artists of their times, admired Xu Wei extremely. Qi once exclaimed in a poem that “How I wish to be born 300 years earlier so I could grind ink and prepare paper for Green Vine”.

Back in Hangzhou, I visited the lakeside Agate Temple where Xu Wei spent a year as a study companion to a scholar who was preparing for the upcoming imperial examinations. It was during this stay at the temple that Xu visited the Yue Fei Temple just about one kilometer away. Inspired by the murals in the general’s temple, Xu Wei created some paintings.

The day after my visit to the Agate Temple, I visited The Temple of God of Wealth on the top of North Peak in Hangzhou. The temple still has the plaque on which Xu Wei wrote the name of the temple. I also visited the examination college where Xu Wei ran into his fate eight times. A few days later I went to visit Xu Wei’s tomb ten kilometers southwest of Shaoxing. The tomb is by no means a spectacular structure, but the tombstone bears an inscription handwritten by Sha Menghai, the best known Zhejiang calligrapher of national renown in modern times.