Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin), one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, is traditionally attributed to him.

Traditionally, it was believed that he was a teacher of Luo Guanzhong, the editor or author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, another of the Four Great Classical Novels.

Late Ming and early Qing scholars claimed that Shi lived near the end of the Yuan dynasty and that he was a native of Hangzhou, but they may have been echoing each other or citing the conjectures that they did not endorse.

The early 20th century scholar Lu Xun thought that the name "Shi Nai'an" might have been invented by composers of a later edition of the novel.

[1] Shortly after World War II, a memorial tablet bearing Shi's name was found in Xinghua county, Jiangsu, and in the early 1950s a team of researches was sent to investigate.