Tang Peisong is considered the founding father of plant physiology in China. He was born in 1903 in Hubei province and graduated from Tsinghua College in 1925. He received a bachelor of arts magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 1927. During his studies at the University, he earned the Charles Lathrop Pack Foundation Prize in forestry.

After graduation, Tang received a doctorate in agriculture from John Hopkins University in 1930. From 1930 to 1933, he performed post-doctoral research at Harvard University. He then returned to China and taught at numerous universities including Wuhan University, National Southwestern Associated Universities, Tsinghua University, and Beijing Agricultural University. In 1948, he was selected to be an academician of Academia Sinica. From 1952 to 1954, he did research at the Institute of Plant Physiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences while also serving as a professor at Fudan University. In 1955, he was one of the first academicians at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

After 1954, he worked at Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was also a professor at Peking University and was elected to be a commissioner at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a representative for the 3rd National People’s Congress (NPC), and a member of the 7th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He served as the chairperson of the board of directors of Botanical Society of China and the honorary chairperson of the board of directors of Chinese Society of Plant Physiology. He earned some of the highest honors in the field of science including the Natural Science Award (1989), Cheng Jiageng Award (1995), and Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (1991).