Zheng Li, also known as Dayu, was born in Zhenhai, Ningbo. He graduated from the traditional Chinese painting department of the China Academy of Art in 1988 with a major in landscape painting, and he remains at the academy as a professor.

His painting Intellectual Family won the Gold Prize at the Ninth National Art Work Exhibition, and another work, Fine Snow, was awarded the Bronze Prize at the Tenth National Art Work Exhibition. His most representative works are landscape paintings of swamps and cranes, as described in the Book of Odes: "the crane cries in remote swamps, but its voice reaches Heaven". In antiquity, the crane was considered to be an auspicious bird.&n...