Abstract:

Liu Shizhong is a famous Sanqu (a type of verse) writer in the Yuan dynasty. But his lifetime is very complex， and there is no unified conclusion today. There are five Liu Shizhongs in the Yuan dynasty who have been confirmed. But in accordance with the age，name and surname，experience，native place and so on，Sanqu writer Liu Shizhong in the Yuan dynasty is the one who were from Shanxi Province. Due to the careless mistake by Yang Chaoying when compiling Yang Chun Bai Xue，there is a misunderstanding between two Liu Shizhongs: one was from Guhong，and another was from Shizhou， Shanxi who also had lived in Guhong. By studying Liu Shizhong’s poetry，prose，Sanqu and the life experiences of his friends Yao Sui，Lu Zhi，Zhao Mengfu，Yang Zai and Zhang Kejiu，we can conclude that Liu Shizhong may be born in around 1270 and worked as a government servant in Hunan and Henan. In 1311，he left for Dadu，the capital city of the Yuan dynasty and was recommended into the Hanlin Academy. At the same time，he also held a post in the imperial sacrifice ritual department. Later，he was pushed aside as an assistant in Zhejiang Province by some insidious person who didn’t have the same political stand with him. At his later years，he resigned and retired and died in about 1352.

Key words: Yuan dynasty, Liu Shizhong, Yang Chaoying, Sanqu writer, life experience, career as an official