Xu was born in Beijing in 19 10. His ancestral home was in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, his grandfather was a magistrate in Suzhou, and his father was a salt ambassador in Zhejiang. He is a famous family. There are seven brothers and sisters. He is the youngest. His brothers Xu Baoju and Xu Baoxun are experts, and his brother-in-law Yu Pingbo is a famous writer and redologist.

When Xu was young, he went out to work with his father and stayed in Tianjin and Hangzhou. Most of the time, his father hired a tutor to teach him, studying the Four Books and Five Classics, history and classical literature. /kloc-after 0/0 years old, he learned to write classical Chinese, so his literary accomplishment is deep, and his language and writing are very concise and accurate. 1925 entered middle school, 1928 was admitted to yenching university Science College after graduating from Huiwen Middle School. Influenced by my cousin Xu Chuanyuan in middle school, I became interested in mathematics. After I entered the university, I learned that the mathematics department of Tsinghua University was the best and decided to transfer to study mathematics. 65438-0929 entered the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University, still studying in Grade One. At that time, the teachers were Xiong Qinglai, Sun Guangyuan and Yang Wuzhi. , China, Zhao Ke, etc. 1933 graduated with a bachelor's degree in science and was admitted to study in the UK. During the physical examination, he found himself too light and unqualified to make a trip. So I decided to take a year off. 1934 works as a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics in Peking University, and as a teaching assistant in osgood, a professor at Harvard University who is visiting Peking University. Two years ago, osgood mentioned Xu's help in his later books. Osgood is an expert in analysis. In the past two years, Xu has done a lot of analytical exercises and started some research. 1935 published two papers, one of which was in cooperation with Jiang Zehan, both of which were analytical papers. At that time, Fenbul and Artiken's Standard Matrix Theory was published, and Xu skillfully mastered the tools of matrix, especially the skills of block calculus. So in the past two years, he has laid a solid foundation in both analysis and algebra. 1936, Xu was admitted to study in Britain again and was sent to the Statistics Department of University College London to study mathematical statistics and pursue a doctorate. In 1938, Xu published three papers. At that time, the University of London stipulated that in order to obtain a doctorate in mathematical statistics, a new statistic must be found and a critical value table of statistics must be compiled. However, Xu was the first person to be replaced by the oral test of statistical practice because of his excellent performance and excellent research work. 1938, Ph.D. In the same year, Neiman, the head of the department, was hired by the University of California, Berkeley. He recommended Xu to be promoted as a lecturer to take his place at the University of London. Xu published two more papers in 1939 and three more papers in 1940. Two of the articles are important documents of mathematical statistics, and they are the basic works of multivariate statistical analysis and Neiman-Pearson theory, so he obtained a doctor of science degree.

After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he decided to return to China to serve, and finally 1940 went to Kunming to teach in The National SouthWest Associated University. Zhong Kailai, Wang Shouren and Xu Lizhi are all his students. 1945 autumn, I was invited to be a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, one semester each. Among the students are Anderson, Lyman and others. 1946 to teach at the University of North Carolina. A year later, he decided to return to China, declined the appointment of some universities, and returned to Peking University as a professor. 1948 was elected as an academician of academia sinica. Soon after returning home, I found myself suffering from tuberculosis. He has been working in spite of illness for a long time, and his teaching and research have never stopped. He has published more than 10 papers on matrix theory, probability theory and mathematical statistics. 1955 was elected as an academician of China Academy of Sciences. 1963, when a cavity was found in his lung and mycobacterium tuberculosis was drug-resistant, the organization arranged for him to rest for many times, but he refused. He led three discussion classes (stationary process, Markov process and mathematical statistics) to lead young people in scientific research. In the mid-1960s, he became interested in combinatorial mathematics. At the beginning of 1966, he co-chaired a seminar on combinatorial mathematics with Professor Duan Xuefu, which was interrupted due to the "Cultural Revolution". However, no matter what the conditions are, he always insists on scientific research. 1970 When he died in February, there was still a pen and unfinished manuscript on the small coffee table beside the bed. 1983, The Complete Works of Xu, edited by springer Publishing House, collected 40 published and unpublished papers. In the autumn of 1980 and 1990, Peking University held two commemorative conferences and published the Collected Works of Xu.