Luo is confirmed to have lived during the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty by the record of his contemporary, play writer Jia Zhongming (???), who met him in 1364. It tells that he was from Taiyuan, while literary historians suggests other possibilities about his home, including Hangzhou and Jiangnan. According to Meng Fanren (???), Luo can be identified in the pedigree of the Luo family, and Taiyuan is most likely his home town.

Recent research has narrowed his date of birth to 1315-1318.

Literary historians are not certain if Shi Naian and Luo refer to the same person, or if the name was used as a pseudonym by the editor of Water Margin who did not want to be associated with any anti-government themes that might be found in this work.

The stories forming the bulk of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin are thought to have been developed by many independent storytellers. Shi Naian is thought to be the first to assemble Water Margin into a unified work, and Luo subsequently brought it to the current form of 100 chapters. Luo is usually considered the author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, although it is suggested that Shi may also possibly be the editor.

Pingyao Zhuan (???) is a ghost story attributed to Luo with 20 chapters, developed from the original pieces of storytelling based on a rebellion at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and later expanded by Feng Menglong (???) into 40 chapters. Can Tang Wudai Shi Yanzhuan (????????) is a chronicle of the end of the Tang Dynasty and the following Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, a compilation of storytelling pieces based on the rebellion of Zhu Wen.