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His native place is Tong'an County, Quanzhou (now part of Xiamen City). Because Tong'an used to belong to Nan'an County, they are called Nan'an people. Su Song's father, Su Shen, was a famous literary minister in the Renzong Dynasty. He once served as an official in Danyang, Runzhou (now part of Jiangsu), and died in office. Su Song lived in Danyang with his father, so he also called himself a Danyang native.

Su Song was educated at a young age and was diligent in his studies. He was well versed in hundreds of schools of classics and history, and was extremely knowledgeable. He studied everything from Tuwei, yin-yang, five elements, ephemeris, mountain classics, and materia medica. In the second year of Qingli (1042), he became a Jinshi. As an outstanding figure in history, Su Song's main contribution is to science and technology, especially medicine and astronomy.

During his stay in Guange, Su Song and Zhang Yu-xi and others were ordered to edit and annotate Kaibao Bencao. During the editing process, Su Song and others suggested compiling a materia medica book with medicinal pictures. Parallel to Jiayou materia medica . This suggestion was quickly approved by the court, and Renzong ordered Su Song to preside over it. Su Song is knowledgeable and rigorous in his studies. He considered that "the research on the books will make it easy to do the work with the help of others; the writings will be written by different hands, so the styles will be different." He recorded all the morphological descriptions in the book, although There are some things that are contrary to the old theory, but they are still retained. If it is related to the literature, it will be attached to it by false form. He also collected many commonly used folk medicines and attached them to medicines with the same functions, and finally compiled this book in the sixth year of Jiayou (1061).