Luo Ruiqing was born in Nanchong, Sichuan, in 1906. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1928. He was the eldest son of a wealthy landlord named Luo Chunting (罗春庭), who had a total of six kids. However, Luo Chunting was an opium addict and lost all of his wealth due to his addiction, and the entire family had to rely on Luo Ruiqing's mother, who did not leave behind a first name, but only her last name Xian (鲜). Due to the downfall of his family fortune, Luo Ruiqing did not receive any traditional Chinese primary education until he was 6, and then did not enter modern elementary school until the age of 14. At the edge of 17, he passed the entrance exam and entered County Middle School of Nanchong. Despite the decrease of family wealth, Luo's family was still able to afford the hefty sum of money needed for his education, and this fact was used by the Red Guards to attack Luo during the Cultural Revolution. It was only after Luo had entered the Advanced Sericulture Academy in Chengdu at the age of 20 when his family was completely gone, and as a result, he was forced to drop out of school and become an apprentice at a silk store, but he never returned to school to complete his studies. Luo's early life was willfully ignored in the official Chinese records until the 1990s, because his petty bourgeoisie background did not fit the political environment until the end of the 20th Century.

Luo took part at the Long March and occupied several posts in the People's Liberation Army in the aftermath. He was transferred to Shaanxi to run the training of young cadres. He led several purges of supporters of former General Secretary Wang Ming. He was then put in charge of eliminating the faction loyal to Zhang Guotao, Mao Zedong's rival in the Fourth Front Army, shortly after his political defeat.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Luo was appointed Minister of Public Security and a member of the Central Military Commission. He was, thus, responsible for consolidating the new system against its internal enemies; in 1950, at a conference in Beijing, he supported the establishment of a militia under his Ministry similar to the Soviet MVD armed force.

Luo took part at the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. He was appointed Da Jiangor General of the Army, the highest rank of general in People's Liberation Army in1955.

At the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1956, he was elected a member of the Central Committee and its Secretariat, and secretary general of the Central Military Commission. In 1959 he was also elected Vice Premier of the State Council.

After Huang Kecheng was removed from his posts in 1959 along with Peng Dehuai, Luo replaced him as chief of the PLA General Staff. However, his reluctance to follow Mao's idea of emphasizing the political training within the army and rifts with Lin Biao led him to be relieved of his posts in December 1965, though he remained a Vice Premier.

During the first stages of the Cultural Revolution, he was branded as part of the "Peng - Luo - Lu - Yang anti - Party clique" (with Peng Dehuai, Lu Dingyi and Yang Shangkun). After criticism sessions, he attempted suicide on March 16, 1966 by jumping from the third floor of a building, surviving but breaking both his legs. This was seen as a proof of his guilt, so he received further public criticism after he recovered. He was hospitalized many times in the following years, and he was forced to have his left leg amputated in 1969.

Luo was rehabilitated by Mao during a meeting of the Central Military Commission in 1975, when he recognized that Lin Biao fabricated a case against the former General. In 1977 Luo was elected in the 11th Central Committee and got back his post of CMC secretary general.

Luo died on August 3, 1978 while in the Federal Republic of Germany for medical treatment.

Lu Dingyi joined the Communist Party of China in 1925, while he was studying electrical engineering at the University of Nanjing. After graduation, he fully joined revolutionary activities, being mainly involved in the Communist Youth League, writing articles for its newspaper Chinese Youth (later renamed Proletarian Youth and then Leninist Youth). In 1927 he took part at both the 5th CPC National Congress and the CYL Congress, being elected a member of the CYL Central Committee working with its Propaganda Department. He was actively involved in countering Chiang Kai-shek's anti - communist coup, organizing communist units in Guangdong. In 1928 Lu Dingyi took part at the 6th CPC National Congress and the CYL Congress, both of which were held in Moscow, remaining in the Soviet Union until 1930 as a junior representative of the CYL to the Comintern.

Lu Dingyi then returned in China and participated at the Long March as an editor of the Red Star newspaper. He also worked with the Propaganda Department of the Eight Route Army, and was a member of the CPC Propaganda Department starting from 1934. In 1942 he was promoted to chief editor of the Liberation Daily after his predecessor Yang Song fell ill.

During the "Yan'an Rectification Movement", Lu Dingyi wrote Our basic view for journalism, which was considered the basis for Chinese communist journalism. In 1943 he was appointed head of the CPC Central Propaganda Department, a post he held until 1952 and then again from 1954. He was elected CPC Central Committee member in 1945.

A political commissar in the PLA, Lu Dingyi gave important contributions to the revolutionary struggle in Shaanxi along with other top leaders like Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi, according to his official biography.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Lu Dingyi was deputy chairman of the Culture and Education Committee of the Central People's Government from 1949 and member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954. At the 8th Party Congress in 1956, he was re-elected a CPC Central Committee member and promoted to Politburo alternate member, concurrently serving as secretary of the CPC Secretariat from 1962. In 1957 and 1960, he accompanied major Party leaders Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping to international meetings of communist parties held in Moscow. His main political activity was in the cultural front, as he directed cultural criticism campaigns.

In 1959 he was appointed a Vice Premier of the State Council, and Minister of Culture in 1965. Shortly after, the Cultural Revolution broke out and Lu Dingyi was accused of being a promoter of the reactionary line in culture, since he did not adhere to Mao Zedong's idea that culture should extensively serve proletarian politics. In May 1966 he was accused of being part of the "Peng - Luo - Lu - Yang anti - Party clique" (the others being Peng Dehuai, Luo Ruiqing and Yang Shangkun) and dismissed. He was also criticized for his activity in the Five Man Group, a Central Committee agency in charge of leading the first stages of the Cultural Revolution led by Peng Zhen, another purged official. He was detained for nearly 13 years.

Lu Dingyi was rehabilitated by the new leadership headed by Deng Xiaoping. In 1979 he was co-opted in the Fifth CPPCC National Committee as its vice chairman; in the same year, he was co-opted in the CPC Central Committee as a consultant to the Propaganda Department. He was later a member of the Central Advisory Commission.

Lu Dingyi died in Beijing in 1996, several years after his retirement. He was hailed as an outstanding Party member and promoter of socialist culture. His knowledge of the English language also allowed him to translate the conversations between Mao Zedong and Anna Louise Strong.