Originally named Yan Zhen, with the courtesy names Qi Shu and Wo Sheng, and the pseudonyms Chen Shan and Han Cun, he was a native of Nanhui, Shanghai. Later, he moved to Songjiang. He was the son of Li Zhongli, a Ming Dynasty official, and the nephew of the renowned physician Li Zhongzi. In his early years, he studied for the imperial examinations under the tutelage of Gao Fuyuan, a provincial graduate from the same region, and became a favored student. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he participated in the resistance against the Qing Dynasty and went to Guilin to join the forces of Prince Tang. After the failure, he took refuge in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, and later settled in Pingshu's Husheng Palace, making a living as a physician. His treatments were often remarkably effective, earning him great fame in medicine. He authored the ten-volume Maijue Huibian, revised and republished the thirteen-volume Yaopin Huayi by Jia Suoxue, and appended materia medica treatise, sovereign, minister, assistant, and guide theory, On the Authenticity of Medicines, and On Medicines at the beginning of the volumes. He also wrote Smallpox Complete Book and Medical Mnemonics, though these works are no longer extant. His literary works include Nan Wu Jiuhua Lu and Lun Xian Ting Ji, among others.