Xiang Liu

Born Liu Gengsheng and later known by the courtesy name Zizheng, Liu Xiang lived from 77 BCE to 6 BCE during the Western Han dynasty. He was a scholar, writer, poet, historian, and government official whose interests ranged across literature, history, and astronomy.

He is especially known for his work with the imperial library, where he helped catalog, edit, and整理 ancient writings. That effort made him one of the key figures in preserving early Chinese literature and scholarship.

Liu Xiang is also associated with important compilations and collections, including works such as Shuoyuan and Xin Xu. Today he is remembered less as a novelist in the modern sense than as a careful editor and author whose work helped transmit classical Chinese thought to later ages.