Su Manshu

Who was Su Manshu?

Su Manshu was a Chinese writer, poet, painter, revolutionist, and a translator. He was born as Xuanying in 1884 in Yokohama, Japan. He later adopted Su Manshu as a Buddhist name. His father was a Cantonese merchant, and his mother was his father's Japanese maid. He went back to Guangdong, China when he was five while his mother stayed in Japan.

He became a Buddhist monk three times during his life; once at the age of 12, later in 1899, and again in 1903. He studied in Japan and traveled to many Buddhist countries including India, and Java. He was involved in revolutionary activity against the Qing Dynasty writing articles and papers. He mastered many languages — English, French, Japanese and Sanskrit. He died at the age of 34 in Shanghai, reputedly of eating 60 meat dumplings to win a bet.

His most notable work is Duanhonglingyan Ji. He also wrote many translations, mostly poetry such as by George Byron, but also a highly criticised translation of Les Miserables.