Qian Zhongshu
Achilles Fang was born Fang Chih-t'ung ("Fang Zhitong" ) into a Chinese family living in Japanese-occupied Korea on August 20, 1910. He eventually left, with the help of a missionary, to attend high school at the American Baptist College in Shanghai. He subsequently majored in philosophy and classical studies at Tsinghua University, where he was one of the few friends of Qian Zhongshu (who would go on to write one of the best-known and most highly regarded works of modern Chinese literature, "Fortress Besieged"). After graduating in 1932, Fang spent two more years at Tsinghua as a graduate student, and then, within a period of four years spent in Nanjing and Beijing, was married, had a child, and suffered the death of his wife.