Li was born in
Qian County,
Shaanxi, on 30 January 1935. In 1952, he enrolled at Northwest Agricultural College (now
Northwest A&F University), where he majored in
hydraulics. After graduation, he stayed teaching for a year. In August 1957, he joined the faculty of
Xi'an Jiaotong University, but after teaching for only a year, in September 1958, he became a student at the Preparatory Department for Studying in the Soviet Union,
Beijing Foreign Studies University. In June 1960, he was a secretary for the Department of Water Resources, Shaanxi University of Technology, and two years later, he studied agricultural irrigation at the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In September 1963, he pursued advanced studies in the
Soviet Union, earning his vice-doctorate degree in hydrogeological engineering 1966. He returned to China in 1966 and continued to teach at the Department of Water Resources, Shaanxi University of Technology. In July 1972, he was appointed vice president of the university, and held that office until August 1992. He also served as director of the Agricultural Research and Training Center for Arid and Semi arid Regions since August 1985. He was a visiting scholar at the
St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University between August 1988 and February 1989. In August 1992, he was recruited as dean and professor of the Survey Institute of Xi'an Institute of Engineering (formerly Xi'an Institute of Geology), and served until April 2000, when he was hired as professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering,
Chang'an University. On 23 February 2024, he died in
Xi'an, Shaanxi, at the age of 89. ==Honours and awards==