Liu Xi

Biography & Historical Record

Liu Xi (刘熙, Lưu Hi; also written 刘熹), courtesy name Chengguo (成国, Thành Quốc), was a classicist and philologist from Beihai (北海, Bắc Hải) in Qingzhou (青州, Thanh Châu; around present-day Changle / Shouguang, Shandong). This page is that scholar. It is not Liu Xian (刘贤, Lưu Hiền) and not Liu Xian (Han) (刘羡, Lưu Tiếm). Import notes that give him a Zhuo / Fangcheng birthplace and a Chapter 48 battle role have borrowed Liu Bei’s commandery and the Red Cliffs chapter number. He did not fight at Chibi. By the Jian’an years he had already gone south to Jiaozhou (交州, Giao Châu).

In Jiaozhou he taught and argued the Five Classics. Sanguozhi names three men who sat with him: Cheng Bing (程秉, Trình Bỉnh) “discussed the great meanings with Liu Xi and so became widely versed in the Five Classics”; Xue Zong (薛综, Tiết Tống) “followed Liu Xi in study” after fleeing to Jiaozhou with kinsmen; Xu Ci (许慈, Hứa Từ) “took Liu Xi as teacher” and later carried Zheng Xuan’s learning into Shu. Fu Tao’s essay on Qing and Chu worthies lists Liu Chengguo beside Zheng Xuan as a Qingzhou man of talent and virtue. Liu Xi’s own book, the Shiming (释名, Thích Danh) in eight juan and twenty-seven pian, is the first Chinese work that systematically explains why things are called what they are by sound — a companion, in later schoolrooms, to Xu Shen’s Shuowen and Yang Xiong’s Fangyan. He also wrote a Mencius commentary (much cited in Tang, now lost as a whole), a Shifa note, and other ritual pieces. Some bibliographies title him “Administrator of Annan” or “of Rinan”; those office-strings are disputed and may be later copyists’ guesses. He likely died in Jiaozhou near the end of Jian’an.

Chapter 48 of the novel is Cao Cao’s wine on the river, the “Short Song,” and Huang Gai’s false surrender letter — a military chapter with no speaking philologist. Catalogs that drop Liu Xi into that hui are filing a Jian’an contemporary beside Red Cliffs, not quoting a line. This article keeps him in the schoolroom at Jiaozhou, which is where Chen Shou’s students put him.

Role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 48 is not his scene. Chapter 48 (Banquet on the Great River, Cao Cao Sings a Song; To the Battle on the Red Cliffs, the Northern Troops Use the Chain) belongs to Cao Cao (曹操, Tào Tháo), Huang Gai (黄盖, Hoàng Cái), and the eve of fire. Liu Xi (刘熙, Lưu Hi) is not on those decks. The honest novel statement is that people-lists of the Romance sometimes print his name among Cao Wei / late-Han worthies of the same generation, while the 120-hui narrative never gives him a speech at Chibi. His “Three Kingdoms” life is the historical one: a Beihai scholar who fled the north, taught Cheng Bing, Xue Zong, and Xu Ci in Jiaozhou, and left the Shiming that later readers still open when they ask why a thing has its name. Vietnamese catalogs write Lưu Hây for 熙; standard Sino-Vietnamese is Lưu Hi. This page uses Lưu Hi and keeps Lưu Hây as the import other-name so old links still match.

Liu Xi (刘熙) — Historical & Literary Timeline

Further reading: Liu Xi (Eastern Han) / Shiming. Not Liu Xian.

Key Relationships

Family

• No father, mother, spouse, or children recorded in the notices used here. A Beihai scholar household, not the Zhuo Liu line of Liu Bei.

Friends

• Cheng Bing (程秉, Trình Bỉnh): Discussed classical “great meanings” with Liu Xi in Jiaozhou and so mastered the Five Classics (SGZ Wu; plain text).
• Xue Zong (薛综, Tiết Tống): Fled to Jiaozhou and studied under Liu Xi (SGZ Wu; plain text).
• Xu Ci (许慈, Hứa Từ): Took Liu Xi as teacher, then served Shu with Zheng Xuan’s learning (SGZ Shu; plain text).

Enemies

• No battlefield opponent. He left the north to avoid the wars, not to command a wing at Red Cliffs.

Other

• Zheng Xuan (郑玄, Trịnh Huyền): The Qingzhou master Fu Tao names in the same breath; Cheng Bing had also served Zheng before meeting Liu Xi.
• Cao Cao (曹操, Tào Tháo) and Huang Gai (黄盖, Hoàng Cái): Figures of Chapter 48, which catalogs wrongly assign to Liu Xi. He is not in their river scene.
• Liu Xian (刘贤) and Liu Xian (Han) (刘羡): Homophone English “Liu Xi / Xian” — different 汉字, do not merge.