Zhou was born into a family of farming background in
Dengzhou,
Henan in 1952. In 1970, after high school, Zhou joined the
People's Liberation Army. Zhou started to publish works in 1979. Zhou graduated from Xi'an Institute of Politics () in 1985, then he entered
Lu Xun Literary Institute. Zhou joined the
China Writers Association in 1988. In 1999, Zhou became the president of Henan Literature Academy (). ==Works==