Bishop Yu was born in the Roman Catholic family in 1919.
He joined the major theological seminary at the age 17 and was ordained a priest in 1949.
He was detained and sent to a forced labour camp in the time of the Cultural Revolution.
After the release from camp, he was clandestinely consecrated as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hanzhong on December 10, 1981.
[1][2] He was an older brother of another clandestine bishop Matthias Yu Chengxin.