Chen Wentong (5 April 1924 – 22 January 2009), better known by his pen name Liang Yusheng, was a Chinese-born Australian novelist best known for being a pioneer of the "new school" of the wuxia genre in the 20th century. Along with Jin Yong and Gu Long, he was one of the best known wuxia writers in the later half of the 20th century. Throughout his career, he published a total of 35 wuxia novels. The more notable ones include Baifa Monü Zhuan, Yunhai Yugong Yuan, Qijian Xia Tianshan and Pingzong Xiaying Lu. Some of them have been adapted into films and television series, including The Bride with White Hair (1993) and Seven Swords (2005).

Chen's given name "Wentong" means "literary tradition". He chose Liang as the surname of his pen name to remind himself that he was inheriting the literary tradition of his ancestors in the same way the Chen dynasty (557–589) succeeded the Liang dynasty (502–557) during the Northern and Southern dynasties period (420–589). He chose "Yusheng" as the given name of his pen name to pay homage to Gong Baiyu, one of his favourite wuxia writers and sources of influence, because "Yusheng" means "born from (Gong Bai)yu".

Chen was born in 1924 in a scholarly family in Tunzhi Village, Wenyu Town, Mengshan County, Guangxi Province in Republican China. His father, Chen Xinyu (陳信玉; born 1896), was a member of the local scholar-gentry who used his knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine to treat the locals. Chen himself was well-versed in the Chinese classics and duilian, being able to recite the Three Hundred Tang Poems by the age of eight. While he was attending Guilin High School in Guilin, he enjoyed writing poems.

Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Chen left Guilin and returned to Mengshan County. During this time, he met two scholars from the neighbouring Guangdong Province who had taken shelter in Mengshan County, and studied history and literature under their tutelage: Jian Youwen, who specialised in the history of the Taiping Rebellion; and Rao Zongyi, who was well read in poetry, humanities, art and the history of Dunhuang.

After the war ended, Chen attended Lingnan University in Guangzhou and graduated in 1948, majoring in international economics.

After the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, Chen moved to Hong Kong and, through a recommendation from Lingnan University, became an assistant editor for the newspaper Ta Kung Pao. He was subsequently promoted to editor and became a member of the newspaper's editorial executive committee.

In 1950, when the Chinese Communist Party launched the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries in mainland China, Chen's father was arrested and imprisoned after being accused of being a landlord under the Five Black Categories. When Chen heard that his father was in trouble, he rushed back to Mengshan County in an attempt to save his father. Along the way, he met his former classmate Peng Yingkang (彭榮康), who told him about the ongoing Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries. At the same time, he received a letter from his family warning him not to return home, so he headed back to Hong Kong. Chen's father was subsequently executed by the Communist government.

Towards the end of 1950, Chen was reassigned to New Evening Post, the evening edition of Ta Kung Pao.