Xu Wei had a tragic life. After passing the county-level civil service examination, he tried eight times unsuccessfully to pass the provincial examination. He eked out a living first as a teacher, then as an advisor to a local ruler. When the latter went to prison and committed suicide, Xu Wei was stricken with schizophrenia and killed his second wife. After seven years in prison, he was released at the instigation of friends. His paintings are an expression of his grievances with the injustices of life and the political system. He was highly talented, and his poetry inscriptions in an unmistakably idiosyncratic calligraphy denounce the grievances of his time. He understood painting as a form of ink play and often worked with ink seemingly arbitrary splashed on the paper. The expressive black form of the folded lotus leaf in this painting is reminiscent of this technique.