Born in Hebei Ninghe, Sun Yunsheng was regarded as the most distinguished apprentice of Zhang Daqian. Since 1936, he followed Zhang and had the most comprehensive training in terms of landscape, characters, flowers and birds paintings. Since the age of 9, Sun practiced art with his uncle, learning ancient calligraphy of Wang Xizhi, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, etc., later became apprentice of Wang Xuetao, Qin Zhonglin and Wu Peiheng.