Educator and student of Ōuyáng Jiàn.
Biography
He went to Middle School (1915-1919) and Teachers’ College in Nanjing (1919-1923). In January of 1923 he tested into the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院, where he studied under Ōuyáng Jìngwú 歐陽竟無. He graduated in August and began teaching at Northeastern University 東北大學 in September. There, he lectured on Consciousness-Only 唯識 as a replacement for Western epistemology. He said he didn’t superstitiously believe in old people, side with Western philosophers, or talk about mysterious things.
Eventually he became a professor. In September of 1928, he went back to his hometown. In his life he taught philosophy at a number of colleges over the curse of his life, in Sìchuān and the Jiāngnán 江南 Region.
His best known in the Buddhist world for participating in debates in the mid-1920s over the authenticity of the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith 大乘起信論真偽辯, as well as his opposition to Tán Dàyuán 唐大圓.
Major Works:
評進化論
唯識今釋補義
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), 2:617-620.
Xú Yǒuchūn 徐友春. Mínguó rénwù dà cídiǎn 民國人物大辭典 (Dictionary of Republican Biography). (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin, 1991), 1142.