Some people say that because they were afraid of being involved in the "Hu Zongxian case", putting on airs turned into real madness, and accidentally killed his wife when quarreling with her. In academic circles, most people tend to think that Xu Wei's wife-killing behavior, like his several suicides, is a pathological manifestation of insanity.
In fact, Xu Wei's wife killing has its complicated personal factors and social background. Most importantly, it is closely related to the Hu Zongxian case, which makes Xu Wei's seclusion hard to say. Until 1569, after the Hu Zongxian case was completely rehabilitated, Xu Cai revealed the real reason for "becoming a boudoir" and killed Fannie and Freddie in a rage.
Of course, the bumpy life experience is the basic factor that creates Xu Wei's tragic personality such as depression, paranoia and irritability, and it is also one of the personal motives for killing his wife.
However, what is more important is Xu Wei's social environment at that time. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, people's rebellious attitude towards the increasingly harsh and stale ideological rule merged with the development of capitalist industry and commerce in the south and the spread of Yangming's mind, forming a non-mainstream trend of thought. At that time, corrupt officials were rampant, the social atmosphere was corrupt, and the whole society was full of "wealth" and "sex". The gifted scholars living in that era seemed to be more or less neurotic. For example, Tang Bohu sneaks out from home from time to time, dressed in rags, singing lotus flowers and begging for money for fun.