Wen Shiren was one of the leaders of Inventec (英业达), a major Taiwanese electronics group, where he served as vice-chairman. He also wrote essays on the future of business and the internet, such as The Future of Enterprise (企业的未来) and Creating Wealth Through the Network (网络创财富).

Convinced that the internet could lift the countryside out of poverty, he launched the "Thousand Villages, Ten Thousand Talents" project (千乡万才) and tested it in Huangyangchuan, a poor township in Gansu.

In 2003 he began writing a great wuxia saga, Qin's Moon (秦时明月), planned in several volumes. On 4 December 2003 he suffered a stroke brought on by overwork, and died on 7 December, aged 55.

He used to say that "work is a mission, but also a pleasure", and wrote despite a crushing schedule. At his death he left only the first draft of Qin's Moon's first volume, most of the second, and bare outlines for volumes three to eight. In Huangyangchuan, the villagers paid tribute to him at a public ceremony.

His novel set out to tell the China of the Warring States and Qin's unification through a young hero's eyes, with epic sweep. The Sparkly Key studio in Hangzhou drew on his drafts to create a 3D animation with an entirely new plot, while the Taiwanese troupe Comedians Workshop (相声瓦舍) completed the novel, loosely drawing on part of his outlines.