Qian Zhongshu

Qian Zhongshu (November 21, 1910 – December 19, 1998), also transliterated as Ch'ien Chung-shu or Dzien Tsoong-su, was a renowned 20th century Chinese literary scholar and writer, known for his wit and erudition.

He is best known for his satirical novel Fortress Besieged.

His works of nonfiction are characterized by large amount of quotations in both Chinese and Western languages such as English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin.

He also played an important role in digitizing Chinese classics late in his life.

Qian created a profound theoretical meaning for the three features of motivational nature, empathetic nature, and rational nature of aesthetic emotion for literature by deeply studying questions such as the source of emotion motivation, the ways to express emotion, and the optimal comfort in emotion in writing.

He believed that the source of emotion motivation is poems because poems can convey human's emotion.

When people transfer their emotion to inanimate objects, they give these objects life, which is the ways to express emotion.

Also, Qian insisted that humans cannot express their emotion as they want; instead, they should rationally control their emotion to a certain degree so that they can achieve an optimal appreciation status.

Most of what is known about Qian's early life relies on an essay written by his wife Yang Jiang.

Born in Wuxi, Qian Zhongshu was the son of Qian Jibo (T: 錢基博, S: 钱基博), a conservative Confucian scholar, landed gentry, and Chinese language professor at Tsinghua, St. John's University, and National Central University (Nanking), respectively.

By family tradition, Qian Zhongshu grew up under the care of his eldest uncle, who did not have a son.

Qian was initially named Yangxian (仰先 ; "respect the ancients"), with the courtesy name Zheliang (哲良; "sagacious and upright").

However, when he was one year old, in accordance with a tradition of zhuazhou, practiced in many parts of China, he was given a few objects laid out in front of him for his "grabbing"; he grabbed a book.

His uncle thusly renamed him Zhongshu, literally "fond of books," while Yangxian became his intimate name.

Qian was a rather talkative child.

His father later changed his courtesy name to Mocun (默存), literally "to keep silent," in the hope that he would talk less.

Both Qian's name and courtesy name forecasted his future life.

While he remained talkative when talking about literature with friends, he kept silent most of the time on politics and social activities.

Qian was indeed very fond of books.

When he was young, his uncle often brought him along to teahouses during the day.

There, Qian was left alone to read storybooks on folklore and historical events, which he would repeat to his cousins upon returning home.

At the age of 6, Qian went to Qinshi primary school and stayed home for less than half a year due to illness.

At the age of 7, Qian studied in a private school of a relative's family.

Due to inconvenience, he quit school a year later and was taught by his uncle.

When Qian was 11, he entered the first grade at Donglin Elementary School, and his uncle died this year.

He continued living with his widowed aunt, even though their living conditions drastically worsened as her family's fortunes dwindled.

Under the strict tutelage of his father, Qian mastered classical Chinese.

At the age of 14, Qian left home to attend Taowu middle school, an English-language missionary school in Suzhou, after being scolded by his father, he studied hard and improved his writing level.

In 1927, Qian was admitted to Furen Middle School, an English-language Missionary School in Wuxi, where he manifested his talent in language.

At the age of 20, Qian's aunt died.

Despite comparatively lower score in mathematics, Qian excelled in both Chinese and English languages.

Thus, he was accepted into the Department of Foreign Languages of Tsinghua University in 1929, ranking 57 out of 174 male students.

One of his few friends was the budding Sinologist and comparatist Achilles Fang.

Qian also frequently cut classes, though he more than made up for this in Tsinghua's large library, which he boasted of having "read through."

It was probably in his college days that Qian began his lifelong habit of collecting quotations and taking reading notes.

At Tsinghua, Qian studied with professors, such as Wu Mi 吳宓, George T. Yeh (Yeh Kungchao 葉公超), and Wen Yuan-ning 溫源寧, Wen Yuan-ning, and others.

In 1932, he met Yang Jiang, who became a successful playwright and translator.

In 1933, Qian became engaged to Yang, and they married in 1935.

For the biographical facts of Qian's following years, the two memoirs by his wife can be consulted.

Yang Jiang wrote, "Zhongshu's 'foolishness' could not be contained in books, but just had to gush forth'".