She was born in Beijing as
Yang Jikang, and grew up in the
Jiangnan region. After graduating from
Soochow University in 1932, Yang Jiang enrolled in the graduate school of
Tsinghua University. There she met
Qian Zhongshu. They married in 1935. During 1935–1938, they went abroad to England for further study at
Oxford University. In England, Yang gave birth to their daughter Qian Yuan () in 1937. They later studied at
Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris, France. They returned to China in 1938. Yang also translated into Chinese three major European works of picaresque fiction:
Lazarillo de Tormes (1951),
Gil Blas (1956) and
Don Quixote (1978). Her Chinese translation of
Don Quixote is, as of 2016, still considered the definitive version. She was also awarded the
Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise for this by
King Juan Carlos in October 1986. Her sister Yang Bi () (1922–1968) was also a translator. Her experience doing "reform through labor" in a "
cadre school" in Henan from 1969 to 1972, where she was
"sent down" with her husband during the
Cultural Revolution, inspired her to write ''Six Chapters from My Life 'Downunder'
(1981). This is the book that made her name as a writer in the post-Mao period. In connection with this memoir, she also wrote Soon to Have Tea
() (aka Toward Oblivion''), which was published in 1983. In 1988, she published her only novel
Baptism (), which was always connected with
Fortress Besieged (), a masterpiece of her husband. Her 2003 memoir
We Three (), recalled memories of her husband and her daughter Qian Yuan, who died of
cancer one year before her father's death in 1998. At the age of 96, she published
Reaching the Brink of Life (), a philosophic work whose title in Chinese clearly alludes to her late husband's collection of essays
Marginalia to Life (). The novella
After the Baptism (), a coda to
Baptism, appeared in 2014. On 25 May 2016, Yang died at the age of 104 at
Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing. Contradicting a Chinese saying that it is impossible for a woman to be both a chaste wife and gifted scholar or talented artist, Qian once described Yang as “the most chaste wife and talented girl” in China. ==Works==