View source for Su Manshu

{{Disambig|note=Not to be confused with the monk Mànshūjiēdì [[曼殊揭諦]].}}
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|<div style="font-size:120%">'''Sū Mànshū 蘇曼殊 (1884-1918)'''</div>
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Names 名: Jiǎn 戩, Yuányīng 元瑛, Xuányīng 玄瑛<br />
Style name 號: Mànshū 曼殊<br />
Courtesy name 字: Zǐgǔ 子谷<br />
Dharma name 法名: Bójīng 博經
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|[[File:Su_Manshu.jpg|200px|center|Sū Mànshū]]
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* Born [[1884]] (Guāngxù 光緒 10) in Yokohama, Japan
* Died March 22, [[1918]] in Guǎngcí Hospital 廣慈醫院 in Shànghǎi [[上海]]
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|Notable Associates:
* Hóngyī [[弘一]]
* Liǔ Yàzǐ 柳亞子 
* Yáng Wénhuì [[楊文會]]
* Zhāng Tàiyán [[章太炎]]
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'''Sū Mànshū 蘇曼殊 (1884-1918)''' was an important artist and writer of the late Qing and early Republican periods. Mànshū was also a sometimes monk, and one of the first Chinese Sanskritists of the modern period.

==Biography==

Mànshū was the son of a Chinese businessman and a Japanese woman from Yokohama. With the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in [[1895]], Mànshū returned with his father to his father's ancestral home in Guǎngdōng [[廣東]]. Because he was the son of a foreigner, Mànshū was neglected by his family, so his father sent him to Hong Kong [[香港]] where he studied English under a Spanish pastor. 

Four years later his father's family suffered financial setbacks, and Mànshū and his mother had to return to Yokohama. There he enrolled in school with the help of a Chinese relative, Mr. Lín 林, who supported him until [[1902]]. Mànshū was able to continue his schooling after 1902 with the support of a charitable organization. While in school he joined various revolutionary youth groups, participating in an anti-Russian drill squad. During this time he became acquainted with Fèng Zìyóu 馮自由 who connected him with Chén Shǎobái 陳少白 in Hong Kong.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Mànshū was tonsured under Zànchū 贊初 at Huìlóng Temple 慧龍寺. Though he technically remained a monk all his life, it is well known that Mànshū ate meat, drank alcohol, and was otherwise not entirely diligent about keeping the precepts.  

[[File:Su_Manshu2.jpg|left|Sū Mànshū as a student]]After ordination, Mànshū returned to Shànghǎi for a period, during which time he wrote several essays for local newspapers. With the help of his former English teacher, Mànshū traveled to Bangkok, where he studied Sanskrit, then traveled to Sri Lanka to continue his studies before returning to Shànghǎi. From there, he traveled to Hángzhōu's [[杭州]] Língyǐn Temple [[靈隱寺]], where he began working on a Sanskrit dictionary. From [[1905]] to [[1907]] he taught at a number of different schools in Nánjīng [[南京]] and Chángshā [[長沙]]. In [[1907]], he returned to Japan, where he lived with Zhāng Tàiyán [[章太炎]]. During this period he completed a number of his major paintings.

In [[1908]], Mànshū accepted the invitation of Yáng Wénhuì [[楊文會]] and taught English at the latter's newly-opened Jetavana Monastery [[祇洹精舍]] in Nánjīng, but because of illness Mànshū was forced to leave this position after only one term. After recovering, he served as a translator for Japan's Sanskrit Society 梵文會, traveling to Singapore and India.

After the founding of the Republic, Mànshū traveled around in Japan and China's Jiāngnán [[江南]] region. In Shànghǎi, he was a member of the Southern Society 南社, and became friends with Liǔ Yàzǐ 柳亞子 and Lǐ Shūtóng 李叔同 (who later became the famous Vinaya master Hóngyī [[弘一]]). 

Mànshū became very ill in Shànghǎi during the summer of [[1917]]. He passed away the following spring.

==Important Works==
{{incomplete}}

==Notes==

<references/>

==References==
* Liú Xīnhuáng 劉心皇.  ''Sū Mànshū dàshī xīnzhuàn'' 蘇曼殊大師新傳 (A New Biography of Master Sū Mànshū).  Taipei: Dongda tushu, 1992.
* {{XFRC}} Pp. 1.929a-931c.

[[Category:Biography]]