Qian Zhongshu (November 21, 1910 – December 19, 1998), also transliterated as Ch'ien Chung-shu or Dzien Tsoong-su, was a Chinese literary scholar and writer. He was known for his satirical novel Fortress Besieged; his erudite, rarefied nonfiction, distinguished by extensive, polyglot references to Chinese and Western history and literature; and his role in translating Mao Zedong’s writings into English.

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 (錢基博), 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; lit. "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, lit. "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, George T. Yeh, 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'". Two years after Qian graduated from Tsinghua University in 1933, Qian taught at Kwanghua University in Shanghai and contributed to English-language publications such as The China Critic.

In 1935, Qian received a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to further his studies abroad. Together with his wife, Qian headed for the University of Oxford in Britain. After spending two years at Exeter College, Oxford, he received a Bachelor of Letters. Shortly after his daughter Qian Yuan (錢瑗) was born in England in 1937, he studied for one more year in the University of Paris in France. In 1938, he returned to China and was appointed as a full professor at Tsinghua University, which, due to the war, had relocated to Kunming, in Yunnan province and become part of Southwestern United University. In 1939, after Qian returned to Shanghai to visit his relatives, he directly went to Hunan to take care of his sick father and temporarily left Southwestern United University. In 1941, During the Pearl Harbor incident, Qian was temporarily trapped in Shanghai.

Owing to the unstable situation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, Qian did not hold any long-term jobs. However, it was during the late 1930s and 1940s that he wrote most of his Chinese-language fiction, including Fortress Besieged and the story collection Human, Beast, Ghost, as well as the essay collection Written in the Margins of Life. After Japan's defeat, in the late 1940s, he worked in the National Central Library in Nanjing, editing its English-language publication, Philobiblon.

In 1949, Qian was ranked on the list of National First-class Professors (國家一級教授) and commenced his academic work in his alma mater. Four years later, an administrative adjustment saw Tsinghua changed into a science and technology-based institution, with its Arts departments merged into Peking University. Qian was relieved of teaching duties and worked entirely in the Institute of Literary Studies (文學硏究所) under PKU. Qian is a senior researcher at the institute, and his wife Yang Jiang is also a researcher. He also worked as part of a small team in charge of the translation of Mao Zedong's Selected Works and poetry.