吴世昌先生1908年10月5日出生于浙江海宁硖石镇一个贫民之家。他自幼迭遭磨难:八岁丧母,十岁丧父;接着又因患眼疾而左目失明;小学没念完,便被亲戚送到杭州一家商号当学徒。但他一心向学,白天做工,晚上偷空读书。17岁时考入嘉兴教会中学当工读生。20岁时考入北平燕京大学英文系。七年间,他先靠写稿挣钱,后靠成绩优秀获得奖学金,完成了本科和硕士研究生学业。他虽读外文专业而治学兴趣在中国文史,本科二年级时就在《燕京学报》发表了自己的第一篇学术论文《释〈书〉〈诗〉之“诞”》。此文在当时引起学界轰动,胡适撰文加以赞扬,并把吴先生和杨树达、丁声树一起列为当代研究古代经书有成绩的三人。1935年,刚从研究所毕业的吴先生应顾颉刚先生之聘,到北平研究院史学研究所任编辑,走上了专攻文史的道路。 Mr. Wu Shichang was born on October 5, 1908 in a poor home in Jieshi Town, Haining, Zhejiang Province. He was suffering from childhood: the death of his mother at the age of eight, his father died at the age of ten; and then his eyes and eyes were blind because of eye diseases. The primary school did not finish it and was sent to a firm in Hangzhou as an apprentice. But he bent on learning to work during the day, night stealing reading. 17 years old admitted to Jiaxing Church Secondary School as a graduate student. 20-year-old Peking Yanjing University admitted to the Department of English. In the past seven years, he earned his scholarship first by writing and finished his outstanding undergraduate and post-graduate studies. Although he was a major in foreign languages ​​and was interested in studying in the history of Chinese literature and undergraduate, he published his first academic essay entitled “Annotation of the Book of Songs” in the Yanjing Journal. This article aroused a sensation in the academia at that time, Hu Shi wrote an article to be praised, and Mr. Wu and Yang Shuda, Ding Shengshu together as a contemporary study of ancient books have three achievements. In 1935, Mr. Wu, who just graduated from the Institute, should be invited by Mr. Gu Jiegang to work as editor at the Institute of History and Science of Peking and embarked on the path of specializing in literature and history.