Luo Guanzhong , born
Luo Ben (罗本), was a
ChineseChinese literature extends back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
author attributed with writing
Romance of the Three KingdomsRomance of the Three Kingdoms , written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of China, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280.It is...
(三国演义), and editing
Water MarginWater Margin is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature...
(水浒传), two of the most revered adventure
epicsAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
and
novelsThe Four Great Classical Novels, or the Four Major Classical Novels of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly counted by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of classical Chinese fiction...
in
Chinese literatureChinese literature extends back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
.
Luo Guanzhong is confirmed to have lived in the end of Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty by the record of his contemporary, play writer Jia Zhongming (賈仲明), who met him in 1364. It tells that he was from
TaiyuanTaiyuan is a prefecture-level city and the capital of Shanxi province, China. In 2004, the city had a population of 3.4 million.-Pre-1911:...
, while literary historians suggests other possibilities about his home, including
Hangzhou' is a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta in the People's Republic of China, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located southwest of Shanghai, as of 2004 the entire Hangzhou Region or Prefecture-level city had a registered population of 6.4 million people...
and
JiangnanJiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...
.
Luo Guanzhong , born
Luo Ben (罗本), was a
ChineseChinese literature extends back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
author attributed with writing
Romance of the Three KingdomsRomance of the Three Kingdoms , written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of China, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280.It is...
(三国演义), and editing
Water MarginWater Margin is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature...
(水浒传), two of the most revered adventure
epicsAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
and
novelsThe Four Great Classical Novels, or the Four Major Classical Novels of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly counted by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of classical Chinese fiction...
in
Chinese literatureChinese literature extends back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novel that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
.
Identity
Luo Guanzhong is confirmed to have lived in the end of Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty by the record of his contemporary, play writer Jia Zhongming (賈仲明), who met him in 1364. It tells that he was from
TaiyuanTaiyuan is a prefecture-level city and the capital of Shanxi province, China. In 2004, the city had a population of 3.4 million.-Pre-1911:...
, while literary historians suggests other possibilities about his home, including
Hangzhou' is a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta in the People's Republic of China, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located southwest of Shanghai, as of 2004 the entire Hangzhou Region or Prefecture-level city had a registered population of 6.4 million people...
and
JiangnanJiangnan or Jiang Nan is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of the Yangtze Delta...
. According to Meng Fanren (孟繁仁), Luo Guanzhong can be identified in the pedigree of the Luo family, and Taiyuan is most likely his home town.
Recent research has narrowed his date of birth to 1315-1318.
Literary historians are not certain
Shi NaianShi Naian , was a classical Chinese author attributed as the first compiler of Water Margin from Suzhou.Not much biographical information is known about him. Some modern scholars doubt that Shi actually existed, and believe his was a teacher of Luo Guanzhong, who was attributed as a main compiler...
(see #Works) and Luo Guanzhong are the same person, or if the name was used as a
pseudonymA pseudonym is a fictitious name used by a person, or sometimes, a group.Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other...
by the editor of
Water Margin who did not want to be associated with any anti-government themes that might be found in this work.
Works
The stories forming the bulk of
Romance of the Three Kingdoms and
Water Margin are thought to have been developed by many independent storytellers.
Shi NaianShi Naian , was a classical Chinese author attributed as the first compiler of Water Margin from Suzhou.Not much biographical information is known about him. Some modern scholars doubt that Shi actually existed, and believe his was a teacher of Luo Guanzhong, who was attributed as a main compiler...
is thought to be the first to assemble
Water Margin into a unified work, and Luo Guanzhong subsequently brought it to the current form of 100 chapters. Luo Guanzhong is usually considered the author of
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, although it is suggested that Shi Naian may also possibly be the editor.
Pingyao Zhuan (平妖傳) is a ghost story attributed to Luo Guanzhong with 20 chapters, developed from the original pieces of storytelling based on a rebellion at the end of Northern Song Dynasty, and later enlarged by Feng Menglong (馮夢龍) into 40 chapters.
Can Tang Wudai Shi Yanzhuan (殘唐五代史演義傳) is a chronicle of the end of the Tang Dynasty and the following
Five Dynasties periodFive Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was an era of political upheaval in China, beginning in the Tang Dynasty and ending in the Song Dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, and more than 12 independent states were established, mainly in the south...
, a compilation of storytelling pieces based on the rebellion of Zhu Wen.
External links