ye was born on 18 october 1915 in xinchang, nanhui, shanghai, republic of china. he studied telecommunications in the department of electrical engineering of peiyang university (now tianjin university). in his senior year, the second sino-japanese war broke out in 1937 and tianjin fell to japanese occupation. peiyang university evacuated to xi'an in inland china and its students and faculty became war refugees. ye graduated from the university in 1938.