Xu Wei (1521～1593), originally named Wenqing, later named Wenchang, also known as Tianchi, Qingteng, Tianchi Shanren, Tian Shuiyue, Qingteng Taoist, etc., his name was Yizhidang, Qingteng Bookstore . A native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. When he was 20 years old, he was elected as a student in the city. After that, he failed in the eight examinations and failed in his official career. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (1557), Hu Zongxian, the guest governor, knew that the soldiers were curious about his plans. Zongxian captured Xu Hai and lured Wang Zhi, which was all due to his plan. In the forty-fourth year of his reign, Zong Xian was imprisoned, but Wei went crazy out of fear of disaster. He accidentally killed his wife and was imprisoned for death, but was rescued and released by Zhang Yuan. After that, he wandered around Jinling, arrived in Xuanliao, and merged into the Jingke Yuan family. In his later years, he returned to his hometown due to illness and poverty, and wrote "Abnormal Spectrum" to narrate his life experiences.
Xu Wei was talented, good at playing the piano and fencing, and was good at poetry, opera, calligraphy and painting. He said: "I am number one in books, second in poetry, third in essays, and fourth in paintings." (Tao Wangling's "The Long Biography of Xu Wen") His poems and essays are unparalleled among his peers. Critics say that he is inspired by Li He's wonders and Su Shi's arguments, and is not out of the ordinary. Both opera and drama can break the stereotypes of the predecessors and come up with new ideas. The paintings he made were full of pen and ink, creating a new pattern of freehand ink and flower and bird paintings, which had a huge influence on later generations.
Xu Wei's calligraphy, with its strange appearance and bold brushwork, is unique in the history of Chinese calligraphy. Yuan Hongdao's "The Long Biography of Xu Wen" commented: "The Sansheng of the Eight Methods is the chivalrous man of Zi Lin."
His calligraphy was based on the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and he learned from the Song and Ming Dynasties more recently.
For the calligraphers of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Xu Wei chose Zhong Yao, Wang Xizhi, Suo Jing and others. He especially had a unique understanding of Suo Jing's calligraphy. He said in "Comments on Words": "I studied Suo Jing's calligraphy, and even though I couldn't understand the outline, people looked at it in terms of chapters and cursives. They didn't know that the chapters were slightly loose and close, while Suo was super and imitated in seal script." Obviously, ordinary calligraphers He only pays attention to the writing style of official script in Zhang Cao, but he can get a glimpse of the meaning of seal script from it, and he can understand and integrate the meaning of seal script, which is indeed superior to others. The wavy and picky strokes that often appear in his writing and cursive writing should be the result of understanding the cursive writing of Suo Jing and others.