Li Yansheng was born in Beijing in 1943. During the early 1970s, he worked for a long time at the Shanxi West Mountain Mineral Bureau. Only in 1980, he graduated from a class of post-graduates for traditional Chinese painting studies at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Li, an expert in traditional Chinese painting, is a member of the Chinese Artists Association, and associate research fellow with the Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting.