Ye Zhi, who was born in Anhui province in 1924, was born and bred in the Chinese classical culture. Ye Congqi, his father, is a man of classical literature. And his mother also had a good upbringing. In the 40's, he was admitted to St John's University in Shanghai and got a Bachelor of Arts and politics degree. After liberation, he worked as a professor of East China Normal University and Fudan University.

The representative translations of Ye include "Extraordinary Summer",  "Wizard", "Dreiser Stories", "War and Memory", etc.