The Xu Dishan Collection > About the Xu Dishan Collection > Biography of Xu Dishan

Biography of Xu Dishan

Xu Dishan 許地山 also known under his pen name Luo Huasheng 落華生, was born on 3 February 1893 in Tainan, Taiwan. In much of the Chinese speaking world, he is known for his influential novels and scholarly writings on religious and educational matters. He also was a prominent figure in the May 4th Movement, a founder of the Association for Literary Studies (文学研究会 wenxue yanjiu hui) and published in Mao Dun’s Xiaoshuo yue, the most influential literary journal of the association.

In 1894 the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and in 1895 the Japanese invaded Taiwan. Shortly after that the family had to flee and went to Longxi in Fujian. In 1897 his father became a magistrate in Yangjiang, Guangdong, to where the rest of the family moved in 1904.

The Xu family always had private tutors for their four sons, Xu Zhanshu, Shuren, Shuwu, and Dishan, from early on, which led to the wide classical education of all. When the family in 1907 moved to Guangzhou Dishan began to learn English with a missionary doctor. In 1910 he graduated from school at the age of 18.

In 1911 he started teaching at the provincial school in Longxi County, and later, in 1913, went to Yangon, Burma (Myanmar) to teach at a Chinese school. He returned in 1915. In 1916 he joined the Southern Fujian London Missionary Society ^[1]. From 1917 onwards he was able to study at Yenching University 燕京大學 with a scholarship from the Society. He studied Sanskrit intensively, and a huge talent for languages helped him to learn English, German, French and Arabic. The part of the collection housed in Hong Kong mainly contains items in these languages, demonstrating his proficiency.

His father died in 1918, and in the same year he married his first wife, Lin Yuesen, with whom he had a daughter.

After he graduated in 1922, he lost his wife while living in Shanghai. Many of his earliest writings are published between 1922 and 1924 in the journal he helped to found, the Xiaoshuo Xuebao (“The Short Story Journal”). Back at Yenching he worked at the School of Religion and cooperated to modernise the Chinese Department. Here he showed his talent and dedication as an education reformer, for which he became well known.

From 1922 to 1926 Xu Dishan studied abroad, first Comparative Religion at Columbia University, and from 1924 onwards at Mansford College in Oxford, where he concentrated on Sanskrit, Indian philosophy, and anthropology. In these years he also took up an interest in Indian literature. His works from that time included research on Daoism and Manichaeism, yet due to his broad interest and dedication to reading and studying, it also included many other areas like texts from Dunhuang and folk literature. In 1926 he made his way back from Great Britain to China, pausing his travels to study Sanskrit and Buddhism in India.

Upon his return to Yenching he taught Indian philosophy at Beijing University and worked at the School of Religion at Yenching. He extended his research activities on Bengali folk tales, the Danjia (a minority group near Shanghai), he translated works of Tagore, and got married again in 1928. He was a professor at Yenching until 1935, when, as it seemed, disagreements with president of Yenching University, John Leighton Stuart, ended in his dismissal^[2].

It seems that one university's loss was the gain of another. He accepted a post as lecturer at Hong Kong University as the Dean of the Department of Chinese Literature. He used his position to reform and rebuild the department within the seven years he was there. The department became a cultural centre for Hong Kong. After the Japanese had invaded Hong Kong, he promoted anti-Japanese resistance and added nationalist contents to his short stories.

During this time, he also complied a Sanskrit dictionary, acquired proficiency in other languages, and took part in many activities of political and cultural groups. He kept his high-energy involvements up until 4 August 1941, when he passed away due to a heart attack. The Quangang wenhuajie zhuidao Xu Dishan xiansheng dahui choubei huiyi (Preparatory committee for the funeral of Master Xu Dishan) in Hong Kong collected obituaries and eulogies, and states in their biographical introduction that Xu Dishan had a Christian farewell ceremony and burial, and that about a thousand people followed the funeral procession. (Quangang, 1941, p. 4)

Xu Dishan is remembered by his impressive knowledge of Sanskrit, Japanese, German, French and Arabic, his scholarly publications on Chinese classics, history, religions and folk customs, and his dedication to educational reform at all levels. He was an educationalist and professor at Yenching, Peking and Tsinghua universities.

Xu Dishan is even more revered as the author of many influential short stories, which include progressive topics like the liberation of women and their struggle against traditional social structures, and the influence of religion these women experience to make their decision for their lives. Research on his life and work is still undertaken, with materials located at ANU Library contributing to the discovery of Xu Dishan as a trailblazing scholar and outstanding and influential writer.

Author: Friederike Schimmelpfennig (July 2021)

^[1] The London Missionary Society established missions in South China, mainly Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Fujian province after the first Opium War in the 1840s. Guangzhou became a permanent station in 1859, with an evangelical focus. The Hong Kong Missionary became established in 1850, with medical work being the focus. Expansion to Fujian took place in the early 1860s, where the London Missionary society cooperated closely with the English Presbyterian Mission, and the Reformed Church in America. (South China, [1803?]-1940. Council for World Mission Archive. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Archives, University of London. GB 102 CWM/LMS/16.

^[2] Some authors have argued that Xu left on his own decision (McOmber, The search for identity, p.138) or that Stuart expelled progressive professor like Xu and others (Zhou and Bian, p.253) cited in Bailey, 1977, p. 202)

Works consulted:

Bailey, Catherine: Mending the Web: A thematic study of Xu Dishan’s fiction. MA thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. Doi: 10.14288/1.0096424

Bodde, Derk. “Hsü Ti-shan” in: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Feb., 1942, Vol. 6, No. 3/4 (Feb., 1942), pp.403-404.

Council for World Mission Archive. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Archives, University of London. GB 102 CWM/LMS/16.

Duzan, Brigitte.Xu Dishan 许地山 1893-1941 Présentation, in «La Nouvelle dans la littérature chinoise contemporaire“ ( http://www.chinese-shortstories.com/Auteurs_de_a_z_XuDishan.htm). Accessed 5 July 2021.

Elia, Gina: “Looking beyond the social: Religion as a solution to alienation in Xu Dishan’s, Bing Xin’s and Su Xuelin’s Republican era literature: in: Religions, 12/2019, Volume 10, Issue 12. doi:10.3390/rel10120664

Quangang wenhuajie zhuidao Xu Dishan xiansheng dahui choubei huiyi 全港文化界追悼許地山先生大會籌備會 (Preparatory committee for the funeral of master Xu Dishan): Zhuidao Xu Dishan xiansheng jinian tekan 許地山先生追悼會特刊 , Hong Kong 1941.

Sima, William. “Far Eastern History:1948-1954” in: China and ANU: Diplomats, Adventurers, Scholars. Chapter 4, p. 99 ff). Canberra, ANU Press, 2015. doi:10.22459/CA.12.2015.

Wang, Rebecca: “The Xu Dishan Collection and the Australian National University Library”. In: Lee , Cheuk Yin. 书山有路 许地山的藏书及其宗教研究 Shu shan you lu-Xu Dishan de cang shu ji ji qi songjiao yanji). Unpublished manuscript, Fudan University.