Ling Xu (1919-2016) was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. He graduated in 1940 from the Chinese Painting Department of the Shanghai New China Art School and devoted the greater part of the 1940s teaching at the same school and in other institutions, including the Anhui Normal College. In the 1950s, he specialized in woodblock and copperplate etching. During the Cultural Revolution, his right wrist was broken, forcing him to work with his left hand ever since.

Ling excelled in Chinese painting, etching, blockprints and calligraphy. He was especially fond of drawing fish. Some of his work has been included in the collection of the China Art Gallery.