In his early years he had different careers as a librarian, newspaper editor and English teacher.
In 1941 he went to India, studied ancient Indian literature, Buddhism, philosophy and returned China in 1946.
At the time he was one of few scholars in China who knew Sanskrit and Pali language.
Jin kemu joined in 1948, he and Ji Xianlin together contributed in developing the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature.
He has translated some ancient India literature and philosophy works into Chinese.