Born in 1901 in China.

He entered the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts when he was a teenager, and studied in Japan in 1919. In 1920, in response to the government's "work-study" policy, he went to study in France and became one of the earliest international students in China.

In 1964, Sanyu was invited by the Ministry of Education to teach in Taiwan and held a solo exhibition in the museum, but he was unable to make the trip. In 1966, he died in Paris due to gas poisoning. Until his death, he almost lived in Paris. After his death in Paris in 1966, the National Museum of History in Taipei held six retrospective exhibitions of him in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1995, 2001 and 2017. In March 2017, the National Museum of History held the collection exhibition "Acacia Paris - Sanyu Collection Exhibition" for the 50th anniversary of Sanyu's death, exhibiting 49 works from the collection. Among the 40 works, the Museum of History adopts the "official certification" and "limited release" international printmaking conventions, authorizing manufacturers to release two editions of art prints of works from different collections, to meet the needs of the general public to own master masterpieces.