Sheng was one of the main translators of the works of Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Sholokhov into Chinese.
[3][1][dubious – discuss] Born in a wealthy family in Zhenhai County, Kuaiji Dao, Zhejiang in 1923, both his grandfather and father were doctors.
And his great-grandfather was the founder of Shengziji Soy Sauce Brewery (盛滋记酱油酿造厂), which participated in exhibition on Panama World's Fair in 1915.
In 1960, he started to translated The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy into Chinese, at the same year, the Sino-Soviet Rupture, and he was brought to be persecuted.
In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, he was regarded as "the agent of Sholokhov" and "a revisionist USSR spy", he suffered political persecution and he was sent to the May Seventh Cadre Schools to do farm work.