Zhou was born in Penglai, Shandong Province in April 1917.
Zhou favored reinstating the entrance examination for all subjects and reducing vocational training.
Zhou committed suicide after a campaign against him of persecution on 13 April 1976, at age 59, during the Cultural Revolution.
His absence from the Chinese government was not noticed in the West until September 10, when his name was one of three of major officials (in addition to Railway Minister Wan Li and Xinhua Press agency director Chu Mu-chih) omitted from the list of dignitaries attending the funeral of Chairman Mao Zedong.
"Mr. Chou came under attack in wall posters at Tsinghua University in Peking last December at the beginning of the anitrightist campaign," a report in The New York Times noted, "and is rumored to have died since, possibly by suicide.