The putative ‘seventh generation’ family head, Liu Liang, was an official of the Northern Wei (386–534), who followed the Emperor Xiaowen (471–499) when he established the capital at Luoyang in 494.

Liu Yuxi's father, Li Xu, was forced to leave Luoyang to avoid the An Lushan rebellion (755–763) and went to Jiaxing (in the north of present-day Zhejiang Province).

In his youth he studied with two renowned poets in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing), the Chan (Zen) monks Lingche (靈澈, 746–816) and Jiaoran (皎然, 730–799), and his later works often reflected this Buddhist sensibility.

At that time, the essayist and poet Han Yu was already also working as an investigating censor, with Liu Zongyuan shortly to join him.

These three literary giants of the middle Tang period became friends and were to remain in close contact for the rest of their lives.

Early the following year, he reached Chang'an, the capital, and unrepentantly wrote a poem with a veiled satire on court politics (The Peach Blossoms of Xuandu Temple 玄都觀桃花 [3]) that helped earn him another immediate banishment.

[2] In 830, Pei Du resigned as chancellor, and Liu was again given a provincial post, this time as governor in Suzhou, where his work on flood control was particularly appreciated.

[2] Liu Yuxi's wide interests are reflected in the subject matter of his poetry: the economic and social customs of ordinary people and their problems, folk music and folklore, friendship, feasting and drinking, and historical themes and nostalgia for the past.

[2] He was a close friend and colleague of three great contemporary poets: Liu Zongyuan, Han Yu and Bai Juyi.

[6] Two of Liu's poems were included in one of the first collections of English translations of Chinese literature: Herbert Giles's 1898 Chinese Poetry in English Verse:[7] 秋風引 Summer Dying 何处秋风至？ Whence comes the autumn's whistling blast, 萧萧送雁群。 With flocks of wild geese hurrying past?

和乐天春词 The Odalisque 新妆宜面下朱楼， A gaily dressed damsel steps forth from her bower, 深锁春光一院愁。 Bewailing the fate that forbids her to roam; 行到中庭数花朵， In the courtyard she counts up the buds on each flower, 蜻蜓飞上玉搔头。 While a dragon-fly flutters and sits on her comb.

A more recent translator, Red Pine (Bill Porter) has translated Ode to the Autumn Wind (秋风引 Qiūfēng yǐn, the same poem as Giles's Summer Dying above), The Peach Blossoms of Hsuantu Temple (玄都觀桃花 Xuándū Guàn Táohuā), and Visiting Hsuantu Temple Again (再遊玄都觀 Zài Yóu Xuándū Guān).

苔痕上階綠， The moss may climb its ruined stair, 草色入簾青。 And grassy stains the curtain wear, 談笑有鴻儒， But scholars at their ease within, 往來無白丁。 For all but Ignorance enters in, 可以調素琴， With simple lute the time beguile, 閱金經。 Or "Golden Classic's" page a while.

Lu Yuxi's view, expressed in an essay called the Tianlun Shu (Tiānlùn shū 天論書), was that heaven and earth (i.e. nature and man) interacted to some degree.