Liu Jingting, originally called Cao Yongchang, was a great Shuoshu (storytelling) master in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty (mid 17th century) and was born in Taixian of East China's Shandong Province. He began to learn Shuoshu at the age of 18 and later studied under the guidance of Mo Houguang, who did a lot of researches on arts of Shuoshu. After a period of diligent study, he got big improvement in his Shuoshu skills and began to make a living as a performer of Shuoshu in Yangzhou and Suzhou cities of Jiangsu Province. Due to his excellent performance, he was warmly welcomed from the audiences in different places. Later, he got to know many celebrities due to his good Shuoshu skills and ever went to barracks to inspire morale through Shuoshu. In his late years, he became very poor, died in 1677 and was buried in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Liu Jingting's Shuoshu skills were appreciated by literators in the late years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and early years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and many noted scholars and literators asked him to write biographies or indite for them. His representative works include Outlaws of the Marsh, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Three Kingdoms and Loyal and Devoted Yue Fei and so on. His art achievements are closely connected with his vagabondage, familiarity to the social life and drift homelessly from place to place.

In his late years, Liu Jingting wrote a book called Liu Xia Shushuo in Chinese. The book has 8 volumes and 100 articles, providing valuable materials for people in later generations to study Shuoshu arts of that period.