Yu Deyuan 虞德元

Yú Déyuán 虞德元 (1909-1989)

Pictured here at right, next to Master Hóngyì 弘一

Also known as Yú Yú 虞愚 Born August 15, 1909 (6/30 Xuāntǒng 宣統 1) in Xiàmén 廈門, Fújiàn 福建 Died July 28, 1989 in Xiàmén 廈門, Fújiàn 福建

Notable Associates: Hóngyì 弘一 Tàixū 太虛 Zhīfēng 芝峰

Article editor: Erik Hammerstrom

Biography

Born August 15, 1909 in Xiamen. As a youth Yú read the works of Zhāng Tàiyán 章太炎 and Liáng Qǐchāo 梁啓超 and was inspired to study Buddhism. He was enrolled in the second class at the Wuchang Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院, which started on September 1, 1924. In February 1925, Tàixū 太虛 lectured on the Èr shí sòng jīng 二十頌經, which inspired Yú to study Consciousness-Only and Buddhist logic. In October 1926 the National Liberation Army took over the school for use as a barracks. Yú then went to Shànghǎi 上海 to attend college. After he graduated, he returned to Wuchang.

In 1930, Yú tested into the Psychology Department at Xiamen University. His college was next to Nánpǔtuó Temple 南普陀寺, which housed the Minnan Buddhist Seminary 閩南佛學院. Until he graduated in 1934, Yú would go to the Seminary to attend lectures, some of which were taught by professors from his university. He was the prime recorder for Tàixū’s Fǎxiāng wéishì gài lùn 法相唯識學概論, which is a collection of lectures Tàixū gave at the Seminary.

After graduating, Yú stayed and taught at Xiamen University until 1935, when he went to participate in the Republican government in Nanjing. When the government moved to Sìchuān 四川 in 1937, Yú quit and went back to Xiàmén. During this time he got to know Hóngyì 弘一. At some point during the the War, Yú fled to Hong Kong, then Hankou, then Chongqing, and finally Sìchuān, where he taught philosophy at the Sino-Tibetan Institute 漢藏教理院. He published two more books in 1939 and 1940 on logic (Chinese, then Indian). In 1941 he took a teaching job at Guizhou University, where he taught for two years. In 1943, he became assistant professor of philosophy at Xiàmén University, and after the war ended in 1946 he became a full professor.

In 1956, Yú took a job teaching at the Chinese Buddhist Seminary 中國佛學院 in Beijing. After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1979, he became a researcher at the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, becoming a specialist researcher in philosopher there in 1982. He returned to Xiàmén in 1987 due to illness, and he died there on July 28.

Major Works

• Yīnmíng xué 因明學 (Buddhist Logic). 1936.

References

• Yú Língbō 于凌波. Zhōngguó jìnxiàndài fójiào rénwù zhì 中國近現代佛教人物志. Běijīng 北京: Zōngjiào wénhuà chūbǎnshè 宗教文化出版社, 1995. Pp. 638-642.
• Yú Língbō 于凌波, ed. Xiàndài Fójiào rénwù cídiǎn 現代佛教人物辭典 (A Dictionary of Modern Buddhist Persons), 2 vols. Taipei: Foguang, 2004. Pp. 2.1371a-1373c.