He ran two major Buddhist presses in Beijing and Tianjin in the 1920s and 1930s. His presses and his own lectures and scholarship focused on Huáyán 華嚴 materials.
Biography
He received a classical education, learning to read from his mother, from whom he also learned to have faith in Buddhism. At 21, he scored at the top of the exams and became a functionary (部郎) at the capitol. There he taught and held a succession of posts. After the revolution of 1911, he moved to Shanghai. He was one of the first representative from Zhèjiāng in the new government. He also edited the Zhejiang Daily News 浙江日報. When Yuán Shìkǎi 袁世凱 took over the government the following year, he spent his time in reciting the Buddha's name 念佛 and studying Buddhist scripture. During this time he visited Dìxián 諦閑 at Guānzōng Temple 觀宗寺. Xú paid for printing of 西齋淨土詩 at Yáng Wénhuì’s 楊文會 Jinling Scriptural Press 金陵經刻處, and published another book as well.
In 1914, Xú went back to the capital and worked with Jiǎng Wéiqiáo 蔣維喬 in the ministry of education. They talked about Buddhism often, and Xú studied Consciousness-Only with Zhāng Kèchéng 張克誠. From March to the fall of 1918, Xú helped finance Dìxián’s northern lecture tour, in which the monk focused mainly on the Sūtra of Perfect Awakening 圓覺經. During this tour, Xú took the five precepts under Dìxián.
Also in 1918, Xú donated a lot of money to Buddhist activities aimed at stemming the disastrous drought that hit Northern China that year. That year he and his friends also started the Bejiing Scriptural Press 北京經刻處, but after those friends left for Shànghǎi 上海, he became the sole manager. The following year he started the Tianjin Scriptural Press 天津經刻處.
From 1920-1937, these two presses published about 2,000 volumes. Throughout the 1920s he published a number of central texts related to Huáyán 華嚴, many of which had been lost or out of circulation.
In the last years of his life he lectured on the Huáyán Sūtra 華嚴經 in Tiānjīn. He also established charities to deal with the Chinese people displaced by the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. He apparently worked himself to death, dying in 1937.
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), 2:730-732.
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), 464-470.
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), 1:836b-838a.