Short answers, pulled from the story.
Taixu was a Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who pushed for the reformation and revival of Chinese Buddhism using both domestic and foreign sources and ideologies. Born Lǚ Pèilín in Haining, Zhejiang province, he later took the Dharma name Taixu, meaning Great Emptiness.
Taixu was born on the 8th of January 1890 in Haining, Zhejiang province. He died in March 1947 at the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai.
Taixu argued there was no rational evidence for God's existence, asking during a three year period of self-confinement, 'Who is God? Is He made of matter or not?' He tied this argument to his wider view that superstition blocks the path to enlightenment.
Taixu proposed cutting the monastic order down to a fixed structure; according to historian Don A. Pittman, by 1930 his plan called for twenty thousand monastics total, divided among students, bodhisattva monastics and elders. He framed this reorganization of the Sangha as a step toward building a Pure Land in the present world rather than in a distant cosmology.
Taixu admired the charitable organizational style he observed among Christian groups while in Europe and applied it to lay Buddhist organizations such as the Bodhi Society and the Right Faith Society. He remained critical of Christian philosophy itself, arguing it was incompatible with modern science and had failed to prevent economic depressions and both World Wars.
Taixu's influential disciples included Yin Shun (1906-2005) and Dongchu (1907-1977). Both carried pieces of his Buddhist reform vision forward after his death.