A file photo of famous Chinese writer Chen Zhongshi. [Photo: xiancn.com]

Famous Chinese writer Chen Zhongshi, known for his full-length novel "White Deer Plain" or "Bai Lu Yuan" in Chinese, passed away on Friday in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, at the age of 73.

Chen, also a vice chairman of the China Writers Association, completed the novel in 1992, and it debuted one year later.

He also won the prestigious Mao Dun Literary Prize for the book in 1997.

With a royalty income of 4.55 million yuan, or around 703 thousand U.S. dollars, Chen ranked the 13th on the first list of richest Chinese writers released in 2006.

"White Deer Plain" tells a half-century long story between three generations of two influential clans surnamed Bai and Lu at a local village in Shaanxi.

The novel, with a circulation of over 2 million, vividly expressed some typical features of Chinese rural areas during the 20th century.

A flim based on the novel was screened in 2012 starring actor Zhang Fengyi and actress Zhang Yuqi, and it won a silver bear award for best photography during the 62th Berlin International Film Festival in the same year.