Liu was born on 17 January 1933 in Haoying Village,
Puding County,
Guizhou, Republic of China. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy of
Peking University in 1956, then spent two more years there studying
aesthetics. Liu joined the faculty of
Wuhan University on the invitation of President
Li Da, and spent his entire career there. He was promoted to lecturer in 1963, to associate professor in 1978, and to professor in 1982. He was named a distinguished professor in 2006. He was a longtime director of the Institute of Aesthetics at Wuhan University, and also served as Vice President of the China Aesthetics Society. Liu spent decades studying Marxist aesthetics, history of Chinese aesthetics, history of Chinese calligraphy and painting, and Chinese traditional thoughts and culture. Considered the foundational work in the field, In 1999, he was invited to teach as a visiting professor at the
University of Trier and
Heidelberg University in Germany, and the book was translated into German and published by the University of Trier Press. Liu was also a painter and calligrapher and published
Collected Paintings and Calligraphy of Liu Gangji in 2012, which includes 269 of his works. The
Hubei Institute of Fine Arts held his personal art exhibition in the same year with more than 150 works. He has been described as "an artist among philosophers, and a philosopher among artists". ==Selected books==