Qian Zhongshu facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Qian Zhongshu
Qian in the 1940s
Born	(1910-11-21)November 21, 1910 Wuxi, Jiangsu
Died	December 19, 1998(1998-12-19) (aged 88) Beijing
Nationality	China
Education	Tsinghua University (BA, 1933) Exeter College, Oxford (BLitt, 1937)
Spouse(s)	Yang Jiang ​ (m. 1935)​
Children	Qian Yuan [zh]
Parent(s)	Qian Jibo [zh]

Qian Zhongshu (born November 21, 1910 – died December 19, 1998) was a famous Chinese writer and scholar from the 20th century. People knew him for his cleverness and wide knowledge.

He is most famous for his funny novel called Fortress Besieged. In his non-fiction books, he used many quotes from Chinese and Western languages. These included English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. He also helped turn old Chinese books into digital formats later in his life.

Qian Zhongshu thought deeply about how emotions work in writing. He believed that poems are a great source of emotion. When writers give human feelings to objects, they make those objects come alive. He also felt that writers should control their emotions. This helps readers enjoy the writing the most.

Qian Zhongshu's Early Life

Most of what we know about Qian's early life comes from his wife, Yang Jiang. Qian Zhongshu was born in Wuxi. His father, Qian Jibo, was a scholar and professor. He taught Chinese language at several universities.

By family custom, Qian Zhongshu grew up with his oldest uncle. His uncle didn't have a son. Qian was first named Yangxian, meaning "respect the ancients." When he was one year old, he took part in a tradition called zhuazhou. He grabbed a book from several objects laid out for him. So, his uncle renamed him Zhongshu, which means "fond of books."

Qian was a very talkative child. His father later changed his courtesy name to Mocun. This means "to keep silent." His father hoped he would talk less.

Both his names showed what his life would be like. He loved talking about books with friends. But he usually stayed quiet about politics and social events. Qian truly loved books. When he was young, his uncle often took him to teahouses. There, Qian would read storybooks about folklore and history. He would then tell these stories to his cousins at home.

School Days and Learning

At age 6, Qian started primary school but stayed home due to illness. At 7, he studied at a private school. He left a year later and was taught by his uncle. When Qian was 11, he entered Donglin Elementary School. His uncle passed away that same year. He continued living with his aunt, even though their family became less wealthy. His father taught him classical Chinese very strictly.

At 14, Qian went to Taowu middle school in Suzhou. It was an English-language missionary school. After his father scolded him, he studied hard and improved his writing. In 1927, Qian went to Furen Middle School in Wuxi. There, he showed his great talent for languages. His aunt died when he was 20.

University Years

Qian was not very good at mathematics. But he was excellent in both Chinese and English. Because of this, he got into Tsinghua University in 1929. He studied in the Department of Foreign Languages. He was good friends with Achilles Fang, a scholar of Chinese studies.

Qian often skipped classes. But he spent a lot of time reading in Tsinghua's big library. He even joked that he had "read through" the whole library. It was likely during college that he started collecting quotes and taking notes from his reading. At Tsinghua, he learned from famous professors.

In 1932, he met Yang Jiang, who became a successful writer and translator. They got engaged in 1933 and married in 1935. Yang Jiang later wrote that Qian's cleverness "could not be contained in books." After graduating in 1933, Qian taught at Kwanghua University in Shanghai. He also wrote for English newspapers.

Studying Abroad

In 1935, Qian received a special scholarship to study overseas. He and his wife went to the University of Oxford in Britain. After two years at Exeter College, Oxford, he earned a Bachelor of Literature degree. Their daughter, Qian Yuan, was born in England in 1937. He then studied for another year at the University of Paris in France.

In 1938, he returned to China. He became a full professor at Tsinghua University. Because of the war, the university had moved to Kunming. In 1939, Qian went to Shanghai to visit family. Then he went to Hunan to care for his sick father. In 1941, he was stuck in Shanghai during the Pearl Harbor attack.

The old gate of Tsinghua University, where Qian Zhongshu studied and taught

War Years and Later Career

During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, Qian did not have a steady job. However, he wrote most of his Chinese fiction during this time. This included Fortress Besieged and his short story collection Human, Beast, Ghost. He also wrote an essay collection called Written in the Margins of Life. After Japan lost the war, he worked at the National Central Library in Nanjing. He edited their English magazine, Philobiblon.

In 1949, Qian was named a National First-class Professor. He started working at his old university, Tsinghua. Four years later, Tsinghua became a science and technology school. Its arts departments moved to Peking University (PKU). Qian stopped teaching and worked at the Institute of Literary Studies under PKU. He was a senior researcher there, and his wife, Yang Jiang, was also a researcher. He also helped translate Mao Zedong's writings and poems.

Cultural Revolution and Later Life

During the Cultural Revolution, Qian, like many other smart people, faced hard times. He was made to work as a janitor. He could not read books, which was his favorite thing to do. So, he read his old reading notes. During this time, he planned to write his big work, Guan Zhui Bian. Qian, his wife, and their daughter survived these difficult years.

After the Cultural Revolution, Qian went back to his research. From 1978 to 1980, he visited universities in Italy, the United States, and Japan. He impressed everyone with his cleverness and knowledge. In 1982, he became the deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He then worked on Guan Zhui Bian for the next ten years.

While Guan Zhui Bian made him famous among scholars, his novel Fortress Besieged made him known to the public. Fortress Besieged was reprinted in 1980 and became a bestseller. Many unofficial copies and "sequels" appeared. Qian's fame grew even more when his novel was made into a TV show in 1990. Famous Chinese actors like Daoming Chen and Da Ying starred in it.

Qian continued his research but stayed away from social events. He spent most of his later life in his reading room. He avoided the media and politicians. Readers often visited him. There's a story that when a British admirer visited, Qian asked, "Is it necessary to know the hen if one loves the eggs it lays?" This meant he preferred his work to speak for itself.

Qian went to the hospital in 1994. His daughter also became ill in 1995. On March 4, 1997, his daughter died of cancer. Qian Zhongshu passed away in Beijing on December 19, 1998.

Qian Zhongshu's Former Residence

Qian's old home is in Wuxi, Nanjing. It covers a large area of 1,600 square meters. His grandfather, Qian Fujiong, built it in 1923. In 1926, his uncle built more buildings on the west side. The whole group of buildings are typical Jiangnan courtyard houses. Inside, there are special separate buildings like Haixu Shulou and Meihua Shuwu.

In 2018, the residence was considered for protection as an important Chinese cultural relic. The former residence has exhibits about Qian Zhongshu and is open to the public for free.

Pictures of Qian's former residence

Qian Zhongshu's Works

Qian lived in Shanghai from 1941 to 1945, when Japan occupied it. Many of his books were written or published during this difficult time.

• Written in the Margins of Life (Traditional: 寫在人生邊上, Simplified: 写在人生边上) was a collection of short essays. It came out in 1941.
• Human, Beast, Ghost (T: 人‧獸‧鬼, S: 人‧兽‧鬼) was a collection of funny short stories. It was published in 1946.
• His most famous book, Fortress Besieged (T: 圍城, S: 围城), came out in 1947. But it only became widely known in the 1980s.
• On the Art of Poetry (T: 談藝錄, S: 谈艺录), written in classical Chinese, was published in 1948.

Besides translating Mao Zedong's works, Qian was asked to create a collection of poems from the Song dynasty. This book, Selected and Annotated Song Dynasty Poetry (T: 宋詩選注, S: 宋诗选注), was published in 1958. Even though Qian quoted the chairman, some people criticized it. They said it wasn't "Marxist" enough. However, critics outside China praised the book highly.

Seven Pieces Patched Together (T: 七綴集, S: 七缀集) is a collection of seven literary essays. He wrote and revised these essays over many years. It was published in 1984. This collection includes the famous essay "Lin Shu's Translation."

Qian's biggest work is the five-volume Guan Zhui Bian (T: 管錐編, S: 管锥编). It means Pipe-Awl Collection. It was translated into English as Limited Views. He started it in the 1980s. It's a huge collection of notes and short essays about poetry, language, and literary history. He wrote it in classical Chinese.

Qian knew many languages and cultures well. He understood classical and modern Chinese, ancient Greek (through translations), Latin, English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. This allowed him to connect Chinese and Western ideas in his work. He used many old Chinese texts as the basis for Guan Zhui Bian. These included the I-Ching, Classic of Poetry, and Records of the Grand Historian.

He compared Chinese classical texts with Western works. He showed how they were similar, or often, how they seemed similar but were actually very different.

Qian Zhongshu is one of the most well-known Chinese authors in the Western world. His novel Fortress Besieged has been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, and Spanish. His book "Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts" has been translated into English, French, and Italian.

Qian was one of the last authors to write important works in classical Chinese. Some people think his choice to write Guan Zhui Bian in classical Chinese was a challenge. It showed that classical Chinese could still be used for modern ideas.

Posthumous Publications

After Qian Zhongshu passed away, some of his works were published. A 13-volume set called Works of Qian Zhongshu (Traditional: 錢鍾書集, Simplified: 钱锺书集/钱钟书集) came out in 2001. It was a fancy, hard-covered edition. This was different from his earlier books, which were cheap paperbacks.

One valuable part of this set is Marginalias on the Marginalias of Life. It shows Qian's clever and funny writing. This collection includes his writings that were previously in magazines and other books.

Other books published after his death received some criticism. For example, the 10-volume Supplements to and Revisions of Songshi Jishi (T: 宋詩紀事補正, S:宋诗纪事补正), published in 2003, was criticized for not being well-edited. Later, a copy of Qian's handwritten notes for this work was published in 2005. Also, parts of his notebooks were published in 2004. In 2005, a collection of his English works was published. These also faced criticism for editing mistakes.

The Commercial Press has started publishing photo copies of Qian Zhongshu's reading notes. These will fill many volumes in both Chinese and foreign languages.

See also

In Spanish: Qian Zhongshu para niños

• List of Chinese authors
• Yang Jiang

Portrait

• Qian Zhongshu. A Portrait by Kong Kai Ming at Portrait Gallery of Chinese Writers (Hong Kong Baptist University Library).