In the mid-Yuan Dynasty, with the gradual fading of the trauma of the War to Destroy the Song Dynasty, the economic and cultural focus of society began to shift from the north to the south. Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, not only became a prosperous city with a large population and developed commerce, but also became an important center for the development of theatrical performances and "storytelling" art. Therefore, many northern intellectuals and scholars such as Guan Hanqing and Zheng Guangzu moved to Hangzhou.
As a writer of novels and zaju, Luo Guanzhong is bound to be influenced by this social trend and become one of these writers who moved to the south.
Luo Guanzhong's nickname is "the prodigal son of the Jianghu", which means wandering around the world. 1345 ~ 1355 years ago, he came to Hangzhou. Many rappers comment on books here, and some zaju writers are also active here. Luo Guanzhong makes friends with like-minded people. In addition, he loves folk literature very much and naturally doesn't want to leave here. At this time, Luo Guanzhong met Shi Naian, who lived in Hangzhou at that time, but was about twenty years older than him.
Luo Guanzhong's hometown is also called "Oriental Hometown" because he lived in "Oriental Hometown" (now Shandong Province) for a period of time after roaming out of Jin Dynasty. He was attracted by the stories of Liang Shanbo and Song Jiang, which were very popular in society at that time. He went there to investigate the local customs and collect materials about heroes of the Water Margin. This is an important reason why he later participated in the compilation and creation of Water Margin. Stories about "Thousand Saints" and "King Zhou Bei" were also widely circulated in the society at that time. Therefore, Luo Guanzhong collected and sorted out this story in this area, and even had the book "Three Riding Demons".
About 136 ο ~ 1363, Luo Guanzhong, who is "aspiring to seek the king", visited Zhang Shicheng, which was striving for hegemony. However, Zhang Shicheng did not attach importance to intellectuals and did not listen to their opinions. In September of the 23rd year of Zheng Zhi (A.D. 1363), Liu Liang, Lu Yuan and others left one after another. Soon, Luo Guanzhong also left Zhang Shicheng and went north again. In the 26th year of Zheng Zhi, Luo Guanzhong returned to Hangzhou. The writing of the popular romance of the Three Kingdoms should be after that year. At this time, he is over 50 years old, has a mature outlook on history and life, and is fully qualified to create the popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the third year of Hongwu in Ming Taizu (A.D. 137O), Luo Guanzhong had written twelve volumes, four years later than Hongwu.
When Luo Maizhong wrote The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Shi Naian moved from Suzhou to Xinghua and died in Hongwu for three years. After completing the well-known Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong decided to process and supplement the Water Margin in memory of his mentor. This book was written between four and ten years in Hongwu.
While processing and supplementing Water Margin, Luo Guanzhong continued to create a series of historical romances.
Luo Guanzhong has finished creating these works, and he is already an old man in his sixties. In order to publish these works, Yu Hongwu came to Fujian from Hangzhou in about thirteen years, because Jianyang in Fujian was one of the centers of publishing industry at that time. However, Luo Guanzhong failed to achieve this goal.
From 1385 to 1388, Luo Guanzhong lived for seventy years and died in Luling, the hometown of Wen Tianxiang, a national hero in the Song Dynasty.