Luo Guanzhong

c. 1330 – c. 1400

Luo Guanzhong (c. 1330 - c. 1400) was a Chinese writer of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, traditionally credited as the author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Little is reliably known of his life, and several other vernacular novels and plays are attributed to him with varying certainty.

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Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Luo Guanzhong.

Life events

Born, traditionally in Taiyuan, Shanxi
c. 1330

Luo Guanzhong was born around 1330 during the late Yuan dynasty; his birthplace is traditionally given as Taiyuan, though other locations have been proposed.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Lived through the turmoil of the late Yuan dynasty
c. 1350 – 1368

Luo came of age amid the widespread rebellions and civil wars that accompanied the collapse of Mongol Yuan rule in China.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Other ✓
Reportedly associated with the rebel leader Zhang Shicheng
c. 1356

Some traditional accounts state that Luo served for a time under Zhang Shicheng, a salt-merchant rebel who ruled a regional regime in the lower Yangtze area, though this is unconfirmed.

Career ?
Said to have been a student of Shi Nai'an
c. 1360

Tradition links Luo Guanzhong to Shi Nai'an, the attributed author of Water Margin, as a pupil or collaborator, though the relationship cannot be verified.

Education ?
Wrote plays and vernacular fiction as a professional author
c. 1364

Luo is recorded in a Ming-era register of playwrights as a writer of drama and historical fiction who wandered the lower Yangtze region.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Composed Romance of the Three Kingdoms
c. 1370

Luo is traditionally credited with compiling and authoring Sanguo Yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a sweeping historical novel of the third-century Three Kingdoms era that became one of China's Four Great Classical Novels.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Credited with editing or co-authoring Water Margin
c. 1370

Some editions and traditions attribute to Luo a role in editing or completing the novel Water Margin, an attribution that remains disputed among scholars.

Achievement ?
Died in the early Ming dynasty
c. 1400

Luo Guanzhong is believed to have died around 1400; the exact date and place of his death are unknown.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓