 From his childhood, Wu poured his energy into mastering the Confucian classics and working his way up through the imperial examinations, obtaining the level of Jìnshì (進士) in 1898 in Beijing after passing the metropolitan and imperial examinations.He converted to Christianity in 1915 and became Yenching University's first Chinese vice-president and chancellor between 1926 and 1934.During the Anti-Christian movement of the 1920s, Wu wrote prolifically in an attempt to fuse Christian theology with Confucian concepts.