喜作書，筆意奔放如其詩，蒼勁中，姿媚躍出；歐陽公所謂妖韶女，老自有餘態者也。間以其餘，旁溢為花鳥，皆超逸有致。卒以疑殺其繼室，下獄論死；張太史元忭(音：變)力解，乃得出。晚年，憤益深，佯狂益甚；顯者至門，或拒不納。時攜錢至酒肆，呼下隸與飲；或自持斧，擊破其頭，血流被面，頭骨皆折，揉之有聲；或以利錐錐(音：追)其兩耳，深入寸餘，竟不得死。周望言晚歲詩文益奇，無刻本，集藏於家。余同年有官越者，托以鈔錄，今未至。余所見者，徐文長集、闕編二種而已。然文長竟以不得志於時，抱憤而卒。

Xu was fond of calligraphy, and he moved his brushes with ebullience just like he did in his poem, which were tinted with dainty and charming among heroic strength.  Ouyang Xiu once described that the nostalgic emotion of a has-been could emit a bouquet in poetry.  Such a critique could be applicable to the calligraphy of Xu.  The pathos of the poem, essay, and calligraphy would extend to his paintings of flowers and birds, also bringing about lingering fragrance to viewers.  Later on Xu killed his second wife out of suspicion and was jailed and sentenced to death.  Zhang Yuanbian, the official historian in palace, then spared no efforts to bail Xu out.  In the latter part of his life, Xu felt more and more aggrieved at the world.  So he deliberately made himself a pretentious person.  He often declined the visits from high-ranking officials and celebrities of fame; instead, he repaired to pubs and drank with waiters and workers.  Once he even used an axe to clobber his own head and so caused heavy bleeding, fractured skull, and broken bones all over his head.  He also used sharp awls to stab into both of his ears as deep as over an inch; surprisingly, he failed to kill himself.  Zhou Wang said there were even more strangeness found in Xus latter works.  He hid all of his scripts of poem in home without publishing them to the public.  I asked one of my contemporaries, who was taking official examination at same year as I and later was posted in Zhejiang Province, to copy the poem and works of Xu for me, but to no avail so far.  All I could find were "The Corpus of Xu Wenchang" and "The Addenda of The Corpus of Xu Wenchang" only, nothing else.  Eventually Xu could not gain success in his career to achieve his aims, and now he left this world with indignation. 

石公曰：「先生數奇不已，遂為狂疾；狂疾不已，遂為囹圄(音：零與)。古今文人，牢騷困苦，未有若先生者也！」雖然，胡公閒(音：見)世豪傑，永陵英主，幕中禮數異等，是胡公知有先生矣，表上，人主悅，是人主知有先生矣；獨身未貴耳。先生詩文崛起，一掃近代蕪穢之習；百世而下，自有定論，胡為不遇哉？梅客生嘗寄予書曰：「文長吾老友，病奇於人，人奇於詩。」余謂：「文長無之而不奇者也；無之而不奇，斯無之而不奇也！悲夫！」

Master Shi observed, " The star-crossed life of Mr Xu Wenchang made him a mentally-illed person.  The constant insanity finally made him imprisoned.  Throughout history, I have never seen other intellectuals ever suffered more from grudge and hardship than he has."  Nevertheless, Xu still got appreciation from an outstanding leader like Hu Zhongxian and the brilliant Emperor Yongling.  The way Hu treated him with high respect meant Hu valued his ability.  The emperor liked his memorial to the throne meant the emperor acknowledged his value, too.  He had got everything except making himself an eminent person.  The rise of Xu-styled poem eradicated the modern trend of vulgarity and mannerism that had already been existing in poet circle.  He would have acquired a posthumous reputation for hundreds of years to come; therefore, so could we just say it was unlucky for him to be born at a wrong time, and not to be accepted by his contemporaries? 

Mei Kesheng once wrote me and said, "Xu Wenchang is my old friend.  His peculiar illnes is stranger than himself as a oddball; as being an oddball, he is even stranger than his unusual pieces of poem."  I replied and said, "Just because everything he has had is strange, that has protended from the start he is doomed to live a life full of obstacles and miseries.  It is so sad, alas!"

P.S.  Please also see a reportage of the biography about Xu Wenchang at:  https://www.toutiao.com/a6551253301944386051/