Luo Guanzhong

Also known as Ming Ben · Hao Hu Hai San Ren

Luo Guanzhong, personal name Ben, styled Huhai Sanren, is known from very few records. Jia Zhongming's Sequel to the Register of Ghosts (Lugui bu xubian) calls him a man of Taiyuan who kept to himself and wrote fresh songs and riddles, adding that the two met again in 1364 and then lost touch; some Ming editions instead call him a man of Dongyuan. The oldest surviving edition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi tongsu yanyi), printed in 1522, says it was arranged by Luo Ben Guanzhong from Chen Shou's history, and most scholars accept on that basis that he compiled the novel from the histories and storytellers' material. Some Ming editions of the Water Margin name him as co-author with Shi Nai'an, and other novels carry his name, but these attributions are contested. His death year is unknown. The 120-chapter text revised by Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang in the early Qing became the standard version of the novel.