Professor Zhang Qi attends a meeting. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhang was born in Leting county, Hebei province in 1922. He started to read books about TCM when he was 6 years old. In 1938, he came to Northeastern China and then became an apprentice in a drugstore called Tianyutang in Harbin.

In 1942, he passed the certification exam for TCM and began his career as a doctor.

In 1957, Zhang took part in the founding of Heilongjiang Homeland TCM Institute and his main specialization was treating kidney disease. Later, he claims to have become the first person to use TCM to cure kidney diseases.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Zhang Qi had become one of the four most famous TCM doctors in Heilongjiang province. After China’s reform and opening-up in 1978, Zhang Qi began to teach postgraduate students and write books, with the aim of developing more young TCM doctors.

In July 2009, Zhang was given the title of "TCM Master" by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Health and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.