Early Life
Hsuan Hua, a native of Shuangcheng County of Jilin Province (now Wuchang, part of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province), was born Bai Yushu (白玉書) on April 16, 1918. His parents were devout Buddhists. At an early age, Hua became a vegetarian like his mother, and decided to become a Buddhist monk.
At the age of 15, he took refuge in the Triple Gem under the Venerable Chang Zhi. That same year he began to attend school and studied texts of various Chinese schools of thought, and the fields of medicine, divination, astrology, and physiology. At 19 years of age, Hua became a monastic, under the Dharma name An Tzu. (安慈)
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