Wei Sihao reads in the Hangzhou Public Library. [Photo/VCG]

Since 1994, he had been donating to financially struggling students under a pseudonym with the sums ranging from 300 yuan to 3,000 yuan. According to letters he received from the supported students, the beneficiaries came from as far as Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

Wei also wrote letters to students to encourage them to study hard, and sent them books and magazines.

A generous man, Wei led a simple life himself.

He lived in an undecorated house in which there is only one small bed laid with several uneven planks and no valuables, one of his daughters explained. Without a mobile phone, he used public phones to make calls to his family.

Wei Sihao's story won a wave of admiration.

"Although you live a poor life, your spirit is noble! Only the fortune in one's mind is the fortune in deed," commented one netizen called Tianya Wangbo on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

"Wei Sihao was a kind-hearted educator. Though he has left us, his spirit should not pass away in this city," Lou Hansong, a professor at Zhejiang University, said.