Gia-fu Feng was born in Suzhou in 1919 and educated in China. He came to the United States in 1947 to study comparative religion. Feng held a BA from Peking University and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and directed the Stillpoint Foundation, a Taoist community in Wetmore, Colorado. Feng died in 1985.