Xu Wei was a famous poet, painter, calligrapher, dramatist, folk writer, gourmet and historian during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. Together with Xie Jin and Yang Shen, he was known as one of the "Three Great Talents of the Ming Dynasty". In the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Banqiao admired Xu Wenchang very much. He once carved a seal and called himself "the lackey of Ivy Sect".
Xu Wei's poems and paintings are known as eccentrics, with novel techniques and strange ideas, but they are also very accurate. After reading them, people will be amazed. This poem looks like a poem about painting. The title states that it is about grapes. However, when I started writing, I did not write about grapes. Instead, I wrote about my own state. I have been in a state of poverty for half my life. I am already old and decrepit. I am no longer able to contribute to the court. , we can only imitate the famous scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and howl in the wind to express their grievances. The third sentence points out their own feelings. The pearl in the pen is nowhere to be sold. In fact, it is not the pearl, but that one’s talents are not recognized, but the literal meaning of the text is But he is also very precise, saying that no one wanted the pearl he painted, so he had to change it to black grapes in the wild vines. The strong contrast between the pearl and the black grapes makes the readers feel a lot of emotion about his situation, and the last sentence naturally boils down to The title, Mo Grape, seems to be a casual touch, but the laughter and curses are all made into an article, and the text and meaning are consistent, and it does not fall behind the words. It is very clever.
In his later years, Xu Wei made a living by selling paintings, but he never painted for the bureaucrats in power. "There were thousands of volumes of books, but they were all sold later. After breaking the rules in Wanwan, he could no longer change, so he borrowed the manuscripts to sleep." , often "wandering alone under the moonlight with hunger" and thanking guests. Only when Zhang Yuanbian died, he went to the Zhang family to express his condolences. He almost stayed behind closed doors. Finally, he ended up in the situation of "several rickety houses and a person with a southern accent". He ended his life at the age of 73. Before he died, he only had a dog by his side, and there was not even a mat on the bed, so he was miserable.
From this poem, we can also see Xu Wei's noble moral integrity that he would rather starve to death than work for the feudal class.