Zeng was born on January 23, 1910, at Baishutang (百恕堂) in Changsha, Hunan, with her ancestral home in Xiangxiang (now Shuangfeng County).

In March 1947, she transferred to the Shanxi-Chahaer-Hebei Border Region (晋察冀边区; 晉察冀邊區) and attended the Land Reform Movement (土地改革运动; 土地改革運動).

[citation needed] At the beginning of 1949, Zeng was appointed deputy secretary-general of the First National Women's Congress.

This was China's first national congress for women and 500 delegates heard Mao Zedong tell them to increase production and to demand their rights.

During the Cultural Revolution, she was called a "big black umbrella" (牛鬼蛇神的黑保护伞; 牛鬼蛇神的黑保護傘) and "alien-class element" (混进革命阵营的阶级异己分子; 混進革命陣營的異己分子) by the Communist government, and she was sent to the May Seventh Cadre Schools in Hengshui County, Hebei to be re-educated and to do farm work.

In 1974, after seeing his mother's unfair treatment, Ye Xuanning wrote a letter to Mao Zedong who approved Zeng's return to Beijing.

[citation needed] In 1928, Zeng married Ye Jianying, who later became one of the founding Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China.