At age of twenty Xu Wei passed pupillary test to be a candidate of imperial examination. He prepared in next twenty years for the examination, which he failed. He then jointed troops of governor-general of Fujian as a staff officer, but ended in prison because of involvement in a political strife. In deep depression, he tried nine times to commit suicide, and in mental disorder, he killed his wife, for which he was put in jail till his release on bail seven years later. He lived out the twilight years of his life as a hermit painter-calligrapher. Twenty years after his death, the Chinese began to realize his talent, and the full appreciation came one hundred more years later.

It is wonderful that we have all sorts of sticks. To make sticks as fine as that of our forefathers, lamp soot and expensive additives and glue is mixed, hammered, and then pressed into an exclusive mould. I rubbed my sticks with care, watching them wearing shorter bit by bit, day by day. From their glossy body, sometimes I had illusions of dressing in an official robe embroidered with spiral dragon and colorful cloud. And sometimes I saw myself changed into as tiny as a fly and shabbily dressed as a Taoist priest. Hurrah! All my good wishes to Your Majesty!