Zhu Dexi was born into a wealthy family of senior officials in the Ministry of Finance in Nanjing that was of Suzhounese descent.
In 1939, with a good foundation in math and English, he was admitted to the National Southwestern Associated University at first in the physics department, but a year later transferred to the Chinese department where he was taught by Tang Lan, Wen Yiduo, Chen Mengjia, and Luo Changpei [REF].