He was born on April 11, 1879, in the town of Hedaogang (Chinese: 河道巷), Sanyuan County (north of Xi'an), Shaanxi Province, Qing China.

In 1889, he returned with his aunt to Sanyuan and entered the school of Mao Banxiang, under whom he began to study archaic and modern forms of poetry.

[1] In 1900, at the age of 22, Yu Youren wrote a letter for the Pacification Commissioner of Shaanxi, Cen Chunxuan, imploring him to take the opportunity of assassinating the Empress Dowager Cixi who was fleeing to Xi'an during the Boxer Rebellion, which would provide the impetus for true reform of the government, but Yu was stopped from sending it by his classmate Wang Linsheng.

In 1903, he passed the civil service examinations to become a Provincial Graduate (juren), but due to the satiric contents of Poetry Drafts from the Hall of Tears and Mockery, the government branded him a revolutionary.

After returning to China in 1907, Yu started a newspaper called The National Herald (also known as the Shenzhou Daily), but its facilities were destroyed in a fire less than a year later.

In March 1909, Yu established another newspaper called The People's Voice (Minzhu Bao) in Shanghai, strongly condemning the culture of corruption in government.

[2] In 1912, Yu Youren was nominated to the post of Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communication, but less than three months later was forced to resign along with Sun Yat-sen's government.

Yu completed numerous inkworks, stone carvings, and title plaques while living in Taipei including works for the National Museum of History, Din Tai Fung, Xingtiang Temple, and the Shilin Official Residence.

The park commemorates about 300 KMT soldiers who hid out in the Pamir Mountains after the Chinese Civil War and were able to eventually escape to Taiwan.

[8] It had engraved at the site examples of the titles and poetry of Yu Youren into stones and rocky outcroppings, forming a beautiful outdoor garden of his calligraphy.

Each of the characters for the title calligraphed by Yu Youren was engraved into individual slabs of marble and then inlaid into a concrete pillar.