Luo Guanzhong

Luo Ben took the courtesy name Guanzhong and the pseudonym Huhai Sanren, "Leisure Man of Lakes and Seas." He lived during the Ming dynasty, though even his lifespan is uncertain—sources place him either around 1330–1400 or 1280–1360. What isn't in doubt is Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the sprawling historical novel he's credited with writing. It became one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, a work that has shaped how generations understand power, brotherhood, and the collapse of empires.