Xu Wen

Life and career

Xu came from the Wujin Xu family. His father was Xu Yu, his mother Tao, his grandfather Xu Yi, and his great-grandfather Xu Shineng; he had an elder brother, Xu Xue, younger brothers Xu Si and Xu Bian, and a wife surnamed Chu.

In Hongzhi 14 (1501), he passed the imperial examination of the Yingtian prefecture, in the Xinyou sitting; his placing is variously given as 106th and 233rd. In the following year, Hongzhi 15 (1502), he passed the jinshi examination in the Renxu sitting, ranking 38th in the third class.

He was first appointed judicial commissioner of Guangping, summoned as a secretary in the Ministry of Justice, and later served as langzhong in the Ministry of Justice, as yuanwailang, and as langzhong of the Ministry of War’s Chariot and Cavalry Office. He then became prefect of Dengzhou, where he suppressed coastal banditry, and was transferred to Linjiang, where he repaired 72 damaged dikes.

He later served as salt commissioner of Changlu, left assistant administration commissioner of Fujian, right administration commissioner of Guangxi, and left administration commissioner of Guangdong; in the second year of the Jiajing era, he left office to mourn his mother Tao.

At Changlu he insisted on clean administration and completed his term without taking a single coin. In Guangdong, when a eunuch-led pearl-collecting mission failed to meet its quota and a censor proposed punishing the merchants, Xu argued that restrictions on pearls should not drive merchants into crime; he was consequently impeached, but later received an award for his integrity.

In Jiajing 11 (1532), for outstanding administrative performance, Xu was appointed Vice Censor-in-chief and governor of Guizhou, with responsibility for military affairs. The native official Meng Yue of Dushan had killed his father and rebelled; Xu led the campaign that suppressed him. During his governorship he founded the Guiyang Academy, enshrined scholars associated with the Lian, Luo, Guan, and Min traditions, and gathered students for instruction; after the Dushan campaign he received an imperial letter of commendation.

In the second month of Jiajing 13 (1534), he was promoted to Vice Minister of War. In a memorial of eight proposals on military preparedness, he urged frontier officials to establish authority through trust, secure the passes, and improve reconnaissance, opposing costly campaigns that harmed the innocent; the emperor accepted his argument. In Jiajing 14 (1535), illness led him to retire; saying that he had not yet attained clarity in learning, he withdrew to the foot of Fangmao Mountain for concentrated study, a period described as ten years.

In the twelfth month of Jiajing 21 (1542), Xu was recalled as Vice Minister of Rites in Nanjing; in the third month of Jiajing 24 (1545), he was promoted to Minister of Revenue in Nanjing. He retired again on grounds of illness in the eleventh month of that year and died at home in the first month of Jiajing 29 (1550). After forty years in office, he left a dilapidated residence and fewer than one hundred mu of fields, part of which he gave to support a widowed sister-in-law; he received the posthumous name Zhuangyu at the beginning of the Longqing era (1567).

Learning and literary networks

Xu was classified as a Neo-Confucian scholar. His learning took Ziyang as its authority, with investigating principle and extending knowledge as its point of entry, reverence and righteousness together with upright integrity as its practical core, and the removal of acquired habits as its method; he also sought to use Confucian learning to refine administration and was regarded as a leading figure by fellow scholars.

His correspondence included letters to Lü Nan and Zhan Ruoshui, replies to Wang Tingxiang and Zhou Chong, and exchanges of letters with Zhang Bangqi.

He also wrote biographies (xingzhuang) of his father Xu Yu and Mao Xian, as well as a poetry preface for Mao Xian.

Works and poetry

His works appear under three forms of the title *Dushu zhaji*: 《讀書劄記》, 《讀書箚記》, and 《讀書答記》, with 《讀書箚記》 listed in eight juan. Other works include 《山堂萃稿》 in 16 juan, a four-juan sequel, 《續稿》, and 《養齋集》.

In poetry, he initially paid close attention to prosody but in his later years devoted himself to Chen and Zhuang. His poetic criticism described the Li, He, and Wang poets of the Hongzhi and Zhengde eras as striving after Han and Wei models and surpassing the *Feng* and *Sao*, while presenting Baisha and Dingshan as poets who were not bound by form and revealed their nature through language; his regulated verse was praised as pure, elevated, profound, and steady.