Erwin Julius Ritter von Zach (18 April 1872 – 19 January 1942) was an Austrian diplomat and sinologist noted for his studies of Chinese literature and its translation, as well as his often harsh criticism of other scholars' work. His German translations of the early Chinese anthology Selections of Refined Literature (Wen xuan 文選) and the collected poems of Li Bai and Han Yu are still the only complete translations into a Western language; he also translated the collected poems of Du Fu. He was the second consul of the Austro-Hungarian concession of Tianjin. Early life Erwin von Zach was born on 18 April 1872 in Vienna, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family was aristocratic and frequently moved throughout Europe. He attended school in Krakow, Lemberg (modern Lviv), and Vienna, studying Greek and the natural sciences. He enrolled at the University of Vienna as a student of medicine, but audited classes in a wide variety of subjects, including mathematics and Chinese. Following an emergency appendectomy in 1895, von Zach moved to Leiden to recuperate. While in Leiden, von Zach attended the Dutch sinologist Gustaaf Schlegel's Chinese classes and began studying Manchu and Tibetan. Career After publishing two articles on Manchu grammar, von Zach chose to pursue a career as a diplomat rather than as a scholar. He served in the Austro-Hungarian consulate in Beijing from 1901 to 1907, using his spare time to compile four volumes of his critiques of previous Chinese scholarship by Western scholars of his and previous generations, which he entitled Lexicographische Beiträge ("Lexicographical Contributions"). In 1909, he submitted and defended the work as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Vienna, and was awarded a PhD. He served as a diplomatic leader in Hong Kong, Yokohama, and then Singapore. In 1919, following Austria-Hungary's dissolution after its defeat in World War I, von Zach's diplomatic post ceased to exist, leaving him with only a small pension. He then became a diplomat for the Dutch government in Indonesia – then part of the Netherlands East Indies – and served until 1925. In addition to authoring articles on topics of Chinese literature and translation, von Zach also spent years working on German translations of the Wen Xuan and the poems of Du Fu and Li Bai. Death and legacy In 1942, near the height of World War II, the 69-year-old von Zach and a