University of Nanking
Tsien entered University of Nanking in 1928 and graduated in 1932 with a degree in history and a minor in library science. He went on to the Jiaotong University Library in Shanghai. He then worked at the Nanking branch of the National Library. In 1936, he married Hsu Wen-chin. In early 1937, the National Library transferred him to the Shanghai branch to curate a large group of rare books and manuscripts which the government had sent there in 1931 when the Japanese army had invaded Manchuria.