Luo Ben (c. 1330–1400, or c.1280–1360), better known by his courtesy name Guanzhong (<small>Mandarin pronunciation: </small>), was a Chinese novelist who lived during the Ming dynasty. He is also known by his pseudonym Huhai Sanren (). Luo Guanzhong is credited with writing Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.
Identity
thumb|Luo Guanzhong Memorial, in Dongping County, [[Shandong]]
The location and date of Luo Guanzhong's birth are controversial. One possibility was that he was from Taiyuan, and lived in the late Yuan dynasty and early Ming dynasty by the record of his contemporary, the playwright Jia Zhongming (賈仲明), who said that he had met him in 1364. Some people doubt that If Luo Ben came from Taiyuan, why he had intimate knowledge of people's lives in Shandong, and he had taken all his time and energy to write about them, and not about people in Taiyuan. Some people believe that the source of Taiyuan statement, which was written by Jia Zhongming (賈仲明), is most likely wrong in handwritten copy. According to recent research, there were two people named Luo Guanzhong during this time (陈辽，Chen Liao But other sources state it was nearer to 1330.
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. to be the first to assemble Water Margin into a unified work, and Luo subsequently brought it to the current form of 100 chapters. Luo is usually considered the author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.