He was born in
Beijing, on September 14, 1921, while his
ancestral home was in
Yueyang,
Hunan. In 1939, he was accepted to the
National Southwestern Associated University, where he graduated in 1943. From 1956 to 1986, he worked at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as an assistant research fellow and then research fellow. In 1986, he joined the faculty of
Tsinghua University. He was a guest professor at
Columbia University and the
University of Marburg. He died in Beijing, on May 28, 2021, aged 99. ==Works==