Yuan Yunsheng was born on 4 April 1937 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. In 1962, he graduated from Dong Xiwen Studio of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1979, he created the mural Water Sprinkling Festival–Hymn of Life for Beijing Capital International Airport. In 1980, he was transferred to the Mural Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. From 1982 to 1996, he was invited to the United States and lived in New York, where he taught at Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, and Harvard University. He has been working at the Central Academy of Fine Arts since 1996, where he was the director of the Fourth Painting Studio of Oil Painting Department, the deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Academy, and a PhD tutor. He once served as the deputy director of the Mural Art Committee of China Artists Association. Currently, he is the director of the Chinese Ancient Modeling Research Center of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the principal of the national major project “Reestablishment of Chinese Higher Art Education System”.