Su Song was of Hokkien ancestry who was born in modern-day Fujian, near medieval Quanzhou. Like his contemporary, Shen Kuo (1031–1095), Su Song was a polymath, a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different fields of study. It was written by his junior colleague and Hanlin scholar Ye Mengde (1077–1148) that in Su's youth, he mastered the provincial exams and rose to the top of the examination list for writing the best article on general principles and structure of the Chinese calendar. From an early age, his interests in astronomy and calendrical science led him onto a distinguished path as a state bureaucrat. In his spare time, he was fond of writing poetry, which he used to praise the works of artists such as the painter Li Gonglin (1049–1106). He was also an antiquarian and collector of old artworks from previous dynasties.