Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t25.3

v2.c15.s2.t25.3

Jin Kemu dropped out of middle school for a few reasons. He used to teach at an elementary school when he was 16-18 years old for supporting his family. In 1930, he went to Peiping (now Beijing) for study and learned several languages including English, French, German and Esperanto. In the winter of 1932, he went to De County, Shandong Province and taught Chinese at the Normal Junior High School. He started to work at the library of Peking University in 1935, but he left Peiping to the south after the July 7 Incident of 1937. In 1938, he was an international News Editor of ‘*Li Bao*’ (《立报》, *State Newspaper*). In 1939, he became an English teacher in Hu’nan Taoyuan Girl’s Middle School and held a concurrent post of French teacher of Hu’nan University, during which he was in contact with Shi Zhecun, Dai Wangshu and Xu Chi and created poetries. In 1941, he went to Calcutta, India via the Burma Road and became an Editor of ‘*India Daily*’. In 1943, he went to Sarnath, Banaras to learn Sanskrit and Pali from Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi, father of a famous Indian historian Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi. After that, he learned ‘*Upaniṣad*’ from Master Jagadish Narayana Kashyap, visited Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi and assisted Professor Vasudev Gokhale to collate the Chinese and Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit version of ‘*Mahāyānābhidharma-samuccaya*’. Since then, he began his studies of Sanskrit. In 1946, he returned to China and became a professor of the Department of Philosophy of Wuhan University. He taught Sanskrit and the history of Indian philosophy at the university and published at the same time many academic writings and literary works like poetries, novels and essays. In 1948, he became a professor of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature of Peking University. In 1951, he joined Jiusan Society and successively served as the Publicising Minister and member of the 5ᵗʰ, 6ᵗʰ and 7ᵗʰ sessions of the Standing Committee, and member of the 3ʳᵈ to the 7ᵗʰ Session of the National Committee of CPPCC. He died of illness in Beijing on August 5, 2000.