Yang Jiang followed her heart

Writing was a lifelong career for Yang Jiang, who died last week at age 104.

Qian Zhongshu, meanwhile, was a renowned scholar and author of the best-selling novel Fortress Besieged.

Obviously, Yang did not live a simple life because she was poor. In 2001, on behalf of her family she set up a scholarship fund at Tsinghua University, where the couple had studied and worked, to encourage students, especially those from poor families, to read. They donated all their royalties, which totaled more than 24 million yuan ($3.7 million) over the years.

Chen Pingyuan, a professor at Peking University, remembers a woman whose achievements had come despite the turmoils of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), China's civil war and the "cultural revolution".

In an article mourning Yang's death, he writes that "the older generations had experienced much fiercer waves, but many of them stood up. They read books out of interest, were led by their hearts, and never followed the stream. Although they had to compromise to some extent, they kept their honesty,which is not really easy".

Born Yang Jikang in 1911, the year China's feudal empire collapsed, she faced tough years before and after the founding of New China.Whether living in poverty or affluence, however, Yang always followed her heart, living a simple and honest life.

Yang was raised in a family of open-minded intellectuals. Her father, Yang Yinhang, a renowned wit and intellect from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master's degree in law. The fourth daughter in the family, she and her sisters were all sent by her father to good schools to receive a Western-style education. Later she would adopt the pen name Yang Jiang.