Liu Xie


Liu Xie, courtesy name Yanhe, was a Chinese monk, politician, and writer. He was the author of China's greatest work of literary aesthetics, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. His biography is included in the Liangshu.
A native of today's Zhenjiang, Liu's traced his ancestry to Shandong. He was orphaned in his youth and chose not to marry, either because of poverty or conviction. Liu studied Buddhism with Sengyou and helped edit sutras at the Dinglin Monastery until his death during the Liang Dynasty.