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A native of Wutian County, Hebei Province. His great-grandfather Wang Ningji was a scholar who passed the imperial examination at the county level. Later, because he refused to serve as a government official, he opened a pharmacy and practiced medicine. Wang Qingren initially served as a military student in the county and obtained the rank of a military officer by donating foxtail millet. He was known for his upright and straightforward character, always standing for justice. When he opened a small pharmacy in Yaohongqiao Hedong Village, he inscribed a plaque that read "Zhongzhong Hall," deliberately writing the character "Zhong" (中) smaller to mock the county government, which led to persecution. As a result, he had to wander and practice medicine elsewhere. He began studying medicine around the age of twenty and soon discovered that "the ancient theories of zang-fu organs and their diagrams were contradictory." For ten years, he harbored the intention to correct these theories but lacked access to actual organs for verification. It wasn't until early April 1797, while practicing medicine in Luanzhou's Daodi Town, that he saw many children who had died of epidemic rashes and dysentery, wrapped in mats and partially buried, with dogs eating their remains and exposing their organs. Unafraid of the filth, he went every morning for ten consecutive days to observe and examine the remains, eventually gathering insights from over thirty cases and gaining a clearer understanding of the anatomical positions of zang-fu organs. However, the thin membrane in the chest cavity, as thin as paper, was often damaged during observation, preventing him from fully verifying it, which remained a lingering concern. Later, he observed two executed criminals, but unfortunately, "although he saw the zang-fu organs, the membrane was already broken, and he still couldn't see it clearly." On the night of December 13, 1829, he met Heng Jinggong, the governor of Jiangning, who had served in Hami and led troops in Kashgar, where he had seen many executed bodies and was most familiar with the membrane issue. Wang Qingren bowed and asked him for details, and after 42 years of persistent inquiry, he finally confirmed the truth. He then drew the zang-fu organ diagrams and completed the book Yilin Gaicuo in the winter of 1830, during the Daoguang era.

Wang Qingren, as an outstanding medical reformer, made significant contributions in his work Yilin Gaicuo. First, he provided more accurate descriptions of the anatomical positions of internal organs and blood vessels in the chest and abdominal cavities, correcting and discovering new details compared to past knowledge. Second, he developed a new theory of promoting blood circulation and removing stasis, proposing many new prescriptions that proved highly effective in clinical practice. Third, he rejected outdated theories such as nourishing the fetus and fetal toxins, and synthesized the new theory that "intelligence and memory reside in the brain, not the heart." His contributions are immense and deserve recognition.