Yangdi (present-day Yuxian, Henan) native. During the Jianyuan era (479-480) of the Southern Qi Dynasty, he was appointed as the governor of Wu Commandery and later rose to the position of Left Assistant Director of the Department of State Affairs. According to the Book of Southern Qi‧Biography of Chu Cheng, Cheng was highly skilled in medicine. Chu authored two works, namely Miscellaneous Prescriptions in twenty volumes and The Posthumous Writings of Chu, the former of which has been lost; the latter was compiled by people of the Tang Dynasty and published during the Jiatai era of the Song Dynasty. The book consists of ten chapters, discussing topics such as the formation of the body, fundamental qi, normal pulse, body fluids, body divisions, essence and blood, disease elimination, subtle examination, text differentiation, and inquiries about childbirth. Its main purpose is to elucidate the profound principles of qi, blood, yin, and yang in the human body. The book holds a different view on the theory of five circuits and six qi, arguing that "qi is difficult to predict, hence diseases are hard to predetermine; qi is not man-made, hence diseases are difficult to measure by man," thus "inferences are often deceitful, and rescues are prone to errors." The book particularly emphasizes that the diseases of monks, nuns, and widows must be distinguished from those of wives and concubines, and should not be treated equally, considering their special psychological factors. Later generations suspected that this book was a forgery by Song people, and the Summary of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries considers it to be "written by someone well-versed in medical principles during the Song Dynasty, but falsely attributed to Cheng for transmission." However, the content of this book has its essence, and it has been frequently adopted by later generations of physicians.