Born in Shandong, he began studies at Peking University in 1935, and later worked for the Hong Kong government.
[2] He was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, was named an Officer of the Order of Australia and received " honorary or visiting fellowships in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Tokyo, Paris, Columbia and Harvard, he was a regular guest and leading speaker at conferences in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, while beside his honorary degree from ANU he held similar awards from Hong Kong, Korea and Murdoch in Western Australia.
"[1] A scholar of Taoism, Buddhism, philology, history and classical fiction, Rafe de Crespigny wrote that "Liu Ts’un‑yan was one of the finest representatives of a very special group of Chinese scholars, superbly trained and skilled in Classical scholarship but with an equal command of modern literature, and with great ability in Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy and religion.
At the same time, he belonged to the generation of the early twentieth century which received Western ideas and blended them to create a new approach to the study of China.
"[3] At Liu's death, Minford described him as a "most meticulous scholar and teacher, able to rise to the demands of the most exacting textual scholarship, at home in the most arcane byways of the Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist classics.