In his youth, he and his younger brother Cheng Yi were students of Zhou Dunyi, one of the architects of Neo-Confucian cosmology.

Hao's father Cheng Xiang (Chinese: 程珦) was still young at the time and was unable to return to Luoyang, so he was forced to grow up in Huangpi instead.

He later became county magistrate (Chinese: 縣尉; pinyin: xiànwèi), at which time his two sons Hao and Yi were born.

In particular, the brothers identified and applied the principle of Divine or Natural Order, called li, to that of Tian, the Heavens, as their original and guiding power.

As Neo-Confucianism's popularity grew throughout the early second millennium AD, the two Cheng brothers along with Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Shao Yong, and Sima Guang became known as "The Six Masters of Northern Song"[5] for their philosophical contributions.