Luo Guanzhong 羅貫中

Luo Ben, or perhaps better known under his style name Luo Guanzhong, was a Chinese author born at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. His most notable works include Water Margin and the fictional Three Kingdoms novel; Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Biography
Born around 1315 - 1318 A.D. and believed to be from Taiyuan, as stated by his contemporary, play writer Jia Zhongming, who met him in 1364 A.D. Some historians, however, suggests other possibilities about his home, including Hangzhou and Jiangnan. The scholar Meng Fanren, who also wrote a 'historical' biography about Diao Chan, believes Luo Guanzhong can be identified in the pedigree of the Luo family, and Taiyuan is most likely his home town.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
See also: Fictional Characters See also: Fictional Events

Luo Guanzhong's most notable work is his fictional novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or Sanguo Yanyi, a novel based on the historical events as written in Records of Three Kingdoms, by Chen Shou.

Luo Guonzhong's novel seems the more popular version of the two Three Kingdoms works and is still the base for many TV Series, Movies and Videogames. Because of it's popularity, and the fact it is based on a historical work, it often is believed by people new to the Three Kingdoms to be factual.

Shu Kingdom
Luo Guanzhong has changed many events and characters in favour of the Shu Kingdom, and took away many achievements from the men of the Wu Kingdom. Some people believe Luo Guanzhong was biased towards Shu.

Examples:
 * Hua Xiong was ordered to guard Si Shui Gate against Yuan Shao's men. Sun Jian was one of the warriors who fought Hua Xiong, but was defeated. Guan Yu then offered to duel Hua Xiong and returned before his wine was cold. In reality, Guan Yu was relatively unknown at this time and didn't fight against Dong Zhuo and his men. Instead, Sun Jian fought Hua Xiong, who teamed up with Hu Zhen and Lü Bu at Yangren. Sun Jian completely defeated the three officers.


 * Another example is Lü Bu's withdrawal after facing the three 'Sworn Brothers'. In reality Zhang Fei, Liu Bei and Guan Yu were not sworn brothers and did not participate in the Campaign against Dong Zhuo, thus did not outnumber Lü Bu. Sun Jian was the one who was outnumbered when he fought Lü Bu, Hu Zhen and Hua Xiong at Yangren. Lü Bu suffered a second defeat at the hands of Sun Jian a while later, in Luoyang.


 * A 3rd example; Sun Jian found the Imperial Seal in a well after Luoyang was set on fire. He lied to his warlord Yuan Shu about this and kept the Seal for himself. In reality, Sun Jian gave the Seal to Yuan Shu.


 * One of the biggest examples is the Wu strategist Zhou Yu. At the Battle of Chibi Wu allied Shu to fight against Cao Cao's invading forces. Shu strategists Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang came up with brilliant plots and strategies to defeat the much larger forces of Cao Cao. In reality, Pang Tong did not participate in the battle and Zhuge Liang's role was very minor. Instead, the whole strategy and its execution came from Zhou Yu.