Member of the Political Bureau of 15th CPC Central Committee; vice chairman of 9th NPC Standing Committee.

Tian took part in the War of Resistance against Japan at the age of 11. He joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 16. He studied in a middle school in a Communist-led anti-Japanese area and attended a vocational school offering courses on accounting.

In the early years after the founding of New China, while serving as a teacher and administrative cadre in the Guiyang People's Revolutionary University and the Guizhou Provincial Training Class for Financial Cadres, he studied many books on economics, including The Capital by Karl Marx. Later, he worked as section chief, division chief and deputy director of the Finance Department of Guizhou Province.

After 1969, Tian worked in Sichuan Province as deputy director and then director of the Provincial Finance Bureau.

Tian became deputy secretary general of the State Council from 1981 to 1983.

He was vice premier and concurrently secretary general of the State Council, director of the National Greening Committee, director of the State Flood Control Headquarters, and chairman of the China Committee of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction from 1983 to 1987.

Tian is member of the 12th to 15th CPC Central Committees. He was co-opted in 1985 member of the Political Bureau of 12th CPC Central Committee, and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. He was elected member of the Political Bureau at the First Plenum of the 13th CPC Central Committee in 1987. In October 1992, Tian was elected for the third time member of the Political Bureau of the 14th CPC Central Committee. In 1997, he was elected for the fourth time member of Political Bureau of 15th CPC Central Committee.

Tian was vice premier of State Council from 1983 to 1993.

Before 1983, Tian Jiyun, who had worked for decades in Southwest China, was not familiar to most Chinese. Since then, however, his name has been often linked with major economic decisions and important economic activities thanks to his prominent role in the country's economic restructuring.

Tian Jiyun was elected (March 1993) and reelected (March 1998) vice chairman of the Standing Committee of 8th and 9th National People's Congresses.

Tian played an important role in the "tax payment in lieu of profit turnover" reform concerning financial management of state enterprises.

Tian also participated in steering price and wage reforms, a vital and complicated link in China's economic restructuring program.

Tian is so fond of playing tennis that he won titles in several competitions.

He has two sons and two daughters with his wife, Li Yinghua.