Li Zongjin was born in Wujin County, Jiangsu province. He graduated from Suzhou College of Fine Arts in 1937, where he learnt from his uncle Li Yishi, Yan Wenliang and Lv Sibai. He worked as a faculty in the Guiyang private Tsinghua Middle School lecturer in the National Beiping Art College, faculty in the Department of Architecture in Tsinghua University, professor in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts . He visited Nepal in 1957 and created lots of paintings about the landscape and people there. Many of his works were featured in a number of art exhibitions and widely published and reprinted many times.