Biography
From Suzhou. His mother died when he was 5, and his father died when he was 7. His family were devout Buddhists and recited sūtras. At 12 he went to elementary school. This was the first year of the Republic and he bought a copy of the Buddhist Miscellany 佛學叢報 at a local bookstore. At 15 he went to Shanghai and passed into Fùdān 復旦 University but did not go, instead he went to the communications section of Nányáng 南洋 Engineering Vocational School. he graduated four years later, at which point he proceded to college to study electrical engineering. He graduated in 1924.
After graduating from college, Yóu got a job translating encyclopedia entries (at the Commercial Press?) on engineering and science at the rate of 2-3000 words/day. He impressed the boss and got a side job as a private tutor. He worked at that for 6 years, and in his spare time wrote scientific commentaries, publishing half a dozen books or so during that period.
It was at this time in his life that he began to believe in Buddhism, owing to the influence of his uncle, Yóu Jǐngxī 尤景溪 with whom he lived. Between 1924 and 1930, he took refuge under Yìnguāng 印光. Around 1930, Yóu was sent by the army to Harvard to study radio technology. He returned in 1932 or 33 and went to work as an instructor and the Central Aviation School in Hangzhou, and he also served as a professor at Zhèjiāng Univeristy. At that time he also attended lectures by Yuányīng 圓瑛.
In the spring of 1937, Yóu became head of radio instruction for the Nánchāng 南昌 Air Force’s 3rd Division. With the outbreak of war later that year he moved to Chengdu. He was there for 2 years, then quit to go into private enterprise and made quite a bit of money.
In July of 1946, he published his series Yī ge kēxuézhe yánjiū fójīngde bàogào 一個科學者硏究佛經的報告 (Report of a Scientist Studying the Buddhists Sūtras) in the magazine Right Faith 正信. Later that same year, this work was published as a separate book, making it widely available in the Buddhist world. Not long after it was first published, a few laypeople got together money to republish it on a larger scale, and an English translation (which was eventually made) was discussed. In preparation for the republishing, Yóu gave the book to Wáng Xiǎoxú 王小徐 to edit.
In 1948, Yóu left Hubei and went back to Suzhou. Back home, all his old friends were gone–dead or left. He set up a Buddhist altar in his home and chanted. The following year, he went to Shanghai to participate in the 佛教青年會. At that time he gave a talk on the radio title, The Buddha-dharma and Science 佛法與科學，after which he returned to Suzhou. It is not certain, but it is likely that the talk he gave on the radio in Shanghai in 1949 was his 佛教科學觀, which he wrote between the publishing of his first article and then.
A revised version of his book “Yi ge…,” was published in November 1954, and he wrote a preface that was published in December in Juexun yuekan. He was living in 漢口 at the time. [1]
Important Works
Yī ge kēxuézhe yánjiū fójīngde bàogào 一個科學者硏究佛經的報告 (Report of a Scientist Studying the Buddhists Sūtras), 1946.
Fójiào kēxué guān 佛教科學觀 (The Scientific Outlook of Buddhism), first serialized in 1949.
Notes
References:
Shì Dōngchū 釋東初. Zhōngguó fójiào jìndàii shǐ 中國佛教近代史 (A History of Early Contemporary Chinese Buddhism), in Dōngchū lǎorén quánjí 東初老人全集 (Complete Collection of Old Man Dongchu), vols. 1-2. (Taibei: Dongchu, 1974), 2:591-592.
Yú Língbō 于凌波. Zhōnguó jìnxiàndài fójiào rénwù zhì 中國近現代佛教人物志 (Biographical Almanac of Early Contemporary and Modern Chinese Buddhism). (Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua, 1995), 619-628.